STRASBOURG, April 23 (Itar-Tass) —— The revival of Nazism in Baltic countries threatens European democracy and human rights, Boris Shpigel, member of the Federation Council upper house of Russian parliament who is on the Russian delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), said from the rostrum of the oldest political organization in Europe.
The Russian side at the meeting called on the Assembly to assess the latest march of former Nazis in downtown Riga that took place on March 16.
“The revival of Nazism, particularly in the Baltic countries, has become a topical theme in the recent years,” Shpigel said. “Veteran organizations of Waffen SS in Estonia were until recently financed by the country’s defense ministry,” he said.
“The authorities in Latvia not just tolerate such functions but show understanding,” said the senator who is also head of the group for cooperation of the Federation Council with Israel’s Knesset (parliament). “A wreath to victims of Nazism was desecrated during the march of SS men and neo-Nazis in Riga with direct participation of police,” he said.
Shpigel mentioned “continued attempts to equate the Hitler Germany with the USSR, which means disregarding the facts that there was the Holocaust and there were crimes of Nazism and trying to put the Hitler Germany on par with other totalitarian regimes.”
“The PACE should state its view on the ‘brown danger’ descending on Europe,” Shpigel went on. “Contemporary Nazism and xenophobia and glorification of Nazism should be clearly defined, and it should be made clear why the Hitler regime should not be equated with any other totalitarian regime,” he stressed.