RIGA, January 26 (RIA Novosti, Yury Guralnik) - The Russian ambassador to Latvia sent an open letter Thursday to a Latvian parliamentary political faction condemning the revival of fascism in Latvia, the Russian embassy said.

"History allocated a place in a garbage heap for servants of fascists, no matter what kind of national dress they wore," Viktor Kalyuzhny said in his letter to the Green and Christians Union political faction.

Earlier, members of the Latvian parliament sent a letter to Kalyuzhny asking him to ban the Russian-made film Nazism the Baltic Way from screenings in Russia, saying it instigated ethnic hatred. The film was about the participation of Estonian and Latvian legionnaires in punitive operations on the territories of Russia and Belarus during World War II.

"Today, no one in Russia can ban from screening the film product of a private company on private television channels," Kalyuzhny said.

In August 2005, the Russian Foreign Ministry said Europe and the international community were ignoring the sharp growth in neo-fascist and revanchist sentiment in Latvia.

The ministry said that, on August 13, 2005, 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 faction 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.