A monument erected in the US city of Chicago in memory of a Lithuanian resistance leader has led to a diplomatic dispute following criticism from Russia and a Holocaust research organisation.

The new memorial was unveiled in honour of Adolfas Ramanauskas-Vanagas, who commanded Lithuania’s resistance to Soviet occupation after the Second World War.

Lithuanian Foreign Minister Linas Linkevicius was present at the unveiling ceremony in Lemont, a village in the suburbs of Chicago, last Sunday.

However, the Simon Wiesenthal Center - an American organisation that researches the Holocaust - claims Ramanauskas-Vanagas was also involved in the persecution of Lithuanian Jews.

In a statement on their website, the Center said Ramanauskas-Vanagas was a “leader of a gang of local vigilantes which persecuted the Jewish community of Druskininkai during the initial weeks following the Nazi invasion of Lithuania in June 1941.”

The Russian Embassy in the US opposed the erection of the monument and criticised its untimely unveiling, as it nearly coincided with Holocaust Remembrance Day and was followed by Victory in Europe Day shortly after.