A group of Nistru war veterans are threatening to destroy with hammers the statue of Lenin near the exhibition center Moldexpo in Chisinau, unless the authorities take it down themselves within 20 days. Valeriu Ciobanu, the leader of the group, said that on June 17 they addressed a letter to acting President Marian Lupu, Prime Minister Vlad Filat, Chisinau Mayor Dorin Chirtoaca and Chief Prosecutor Valeriu Zubco, requesting them to take down all the monuments erected under the Soviet regime. “We are waiting for an official reaction, after which, if we don't see any concrete action – like the Baltic states did, and Gerogia more recently, when they destroyed everything related to the totalitarian communist ideology, including the symbols of hammer and sickle – then we will take action”, Valeriu Ciobanu told a press conference. The veterans urged all citizens to join their cause, in particular the families of Soviet-era deportees. “I have serious reasons. I want to destroy that statue to avenge the sufferings of my grandfather and of my nation”, said Valeriu Ciobanu. Last week, the man struck Lenin's statue with a hammer several times to prove he was serious. Contacted by Info-Prim Neo, the head of the National Union of the Independence War Veterans, Eduard Maican, said he was not aware of such an initiative.