Latvia

Latvia On Friday, President Lech Kaczynski approved an amendment to the criminal code which outlaws production, possession, spread and sale of items or recordings containing symbols of communism. Anyone who disobeys the law – for instance, waves a red flag singing The Internationale in the centre of Warsaw – can be fined or e ...ven sent to jail for up to two years.

However, communist attributes can still be used for artistic, research and educational purposes. Collectors will not be punished either.
“Communism was a genocidal system that led to the murder of tens of millions of people,” Jaroslaw Kaczynski – the president’s twin brother and the head of the party – said back then. “No symbol of communism has a right to exist in Poland, because these are symbols of a genocidal system that should be compared to German Nazism.”

The law also bans the display of the Nazi symbols, which is quite common for many European countries including Germany. It is the outlawing of the communist symbols that makes the Polish initiative unusual.