MOSCOW, August 17 (RIA Novosti) - Europe and the international community are turning a blind eye to the sharp growth in neo-fascist and revanchist sentiment in Latvia, the Russian Foreign Ministry's press service said.

The ministry reported that on August 13, the seventh annual parade of former Waffen SS Nazi officers was held in Smarda in the Tukumse Region in Latvia. Among the guests were the chairman of the Latvian parliamentary fraction of the New Time Party Karlis Shadurskis, parliament members from the Fatherland and Freedom party Yuris Dobelis and Peteris Tabuns, and the former head of the parliamentary Foreign Affairs Committee Alexander Kirchsteins.

Before the parade, numerous events involving former Nazi sympathizers were held. On July 30, next to Riga's Freedom Monument, a number of former "national guerilla fighters" were awarded medals for "helping Latvia to join NATO".

Latvian Defense Minister and leader of the New Time party Einars Repse proposed establishing a monthly allowance beginning September 1 of this year taken from the defense budget for former 'Forest Brothers', who took up arms against the Soviet Union in World War II.

"This looks particularly cynical given the lack of any state support for the former anti-Nazi coalition members living in Latvia," the Russian Foreign Ministry press service said.

"Clearly, all of these events involving former SS officers and their supporters have internal political goals. As the parliamentary elections loom, far-right nationalists, making World War II revisionism and the lionization of Nazi helpers, one of their main ideological standpoints, are striving to mobilize the ultra-nationalist part of the electorate as much as possible," the press service said.