Alarm in Pechenga as Investigative Committee slams local authorities over war memorial
According to Committee leader Aleksandr Bastrykin, the municipality that is located along the border to Norway and Finland has failed to preserve a local war memorial.
There was hectic activity at a memorial site in the military town of Pechenga in early October. A significant number of locals were busy with cutting the grass and tidying up the place. Among the people involved in the work were soldiers from the nearby base of the 200th Motorised Rifle Brigade, photos from the site show.
"Friends! On Sunday, 5 October, at 1 p.m., we will hold a community clean-up day at the memorial in Pechenga," initiator of the action Galina Bystrova wrote in a social media post.
Bystrova works as communication adviser in the local municipality.
It is a matter of urgency, she explained.
"Bring rubbish bags, trimmers, scythes, saws — preferably battery-powered or petrol-powered — as well as cement, sand and water. We will repair and clean up the area as best we can and prepare for the holiday. Let me remind everyone that this is a monument of regional significance, a cultural heritage site. Let's get to work!"
The hassle followed an announcement by the federal Investigative Committee. On October 1, the state body responsible for criminal proceedings officially criticised local authorities for failure to maintain the Pechenga memorial.
"For a long time, the memorial complex has been in poor condition: some of the plates are missing, cracks have formed in them, the pavement is crumbling, and the area is not well maintained. However, no measures have been taken to organise repair work," Head of the Investigative Committee Aleksandr Bastrykin says.
Bastrykin says that he has started a so-called procedural review of the case and that the local Murmansk branch of the Investigative Committee has been instructed to follow up.
The announcement from the powerful committee in Moscow triggered a quick reaction from local authorities. In addition to the community clean-up action, a representative of the local government official confirmed in a social media post that the local municipal budget for 2026 will include funding for a major facelift of the monument.
The criticism from Aleksandr Bastrykin comes as authorities in Murmansk are starting regional celebrations of the Soviet victory in the Second World War.
On October 7, 1944, Soviet forces launched its major counter-attack on the German troops that for more than three years had occupied parts of the Kola Peninsula. By October 25, the Red Army had pushed the Germans out of Soviet territory, as well as the Finnish Petsamo region and parts of the Norwegian eastern Finnmark region.
They Soviets retreated from Norwegian land in September 1945, but never left Petsamo. The Finnish region was occupied and renamed Pechenga.
A big number of local war memorials commemorate Soviet losses during the war. Many of them falsely present Pechenga as 'liberated Russian land.'
New war memorials are still being built in the area. On October 7, the Border Guard Service of the FSB officially opened a new memorial by one of its checkpoints on the road leading to the Norwegian border.
Local Mayor Andrei Kuznetsov expressed gratitude to the border guards for the new memorial.
"On behalf of myself and all the residents of the Pechenga District, I would like to express my gratitude for today's event and for the restoration of the monument. This is truly very important for the residents of our district," he said in an address.
