The now-traditional anti-government rally in Bulgaria's capital Sofia altered its route on Wednesday in order to pay homage to the victims of the 1968 Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia.

Several hundred protesters held a minute of silence in front of the embassies of the Czech Republic and Slovakia Wednesday evening, reporters say.

The demonstrators then headed to the Soviet Army Monument, which had been painted pink by unknown street artists overnight - a tribute to Czech artist David Cerny, who in 1991 painted pink the Soviet tank memorialized in Prague as a supposed symbol of Soviet liberation.

Under the newly-painted monument in downtown Sofia the artists had written “Bulgaria apologizes" in Czech and Bulgarian.

Late on Wednesday, the anti-government protesters once again demanded that the controversial monument be removed.

August 21st marked the 45th anniversary of the brutal Soviet crushing of the Prague Spring, in which the Bulgarian Communist regime played a major role.

Bulgaria's Socialist-led government remains in power despite 69 straight days of unrelenting anti-graft protests in Sofia.

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