MOSCOW. Sept 29 (Interfax) - Russia has expressed outrage over the opening of a memorial cemetery for Latvians who fought in the Waffen SS Nazi forces during World War II. The memorial was opened outside Riga on September 27.

"The tradition of paying tribute to victims of WWII is a normal thing which needs no comment. But opening a memorial for Latvia's Waffen SS soldiers is yet another attempt to distort history and to instigate ethnic enmity and hatred of Russia," the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a commentary circulated on Monday.

"People are being told that all those who served in the Waffen SS's 19th and 15th divisions fought only at the front. Archives suggest, meanwhile, that the Latvian Legion which, incidentally, took an oath of allegiance to Hitler, was attached to Hitler's SD security police in 1943-45 and is remembered for its notoriously punitive actions in Latvia, Russia and Belarus. These 'heroes' took part in massive executions and guarded Nazi death camps," the Foreign Ministry said.

"Surprisingly, not only national-radical forces, but also other Latvian political, public and religious figures, including the Latvian culture minister and the Defense Ministry official for Latvia's integration with NATO, supported the revanchist tonality of the event. The military honors provided by the national armed forces to those who served Nazi Germany go beyond the generally accepted European standards," it wrote.

The Foreign Ministry described the praise given to members of the Latvian Legion as an act which profanes the memory of victims of fascism and of fighters against fascism.

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