MOSCOW, July 3 (Itar-Tass) - The statements of OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media Dunja Mijatovic about Russia’s recent legislative initiatives are incorrect and get beyond her mandate, the Russian Foreign Ministry stated on Wednesday.
“The OSCE representative made a press release the other day, voicing concern over a new legislative initiative of the State Duma that is aimed against the falsification of the history of the Great Patriotic War,” the ministry recalled. “Mijatovic’s comments distort the true sense of the bill, the main goal of which is to avert the rehabilitation of the Nazism. The proposed bill envisages the introduction of responsibility for the denial or approval of the crimes of the Nazism and Nazi criminals and the finding of the actions of the anti-Hitler coalition unlawful,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said.
“Amid ongoing attempts to revise the results of the Second World War and the results of the Nuremberg Tribunal this bill should protect the historical truth,” the ministry noted. “The heroization of the Nazism and the blackening of the countries-liberators cannot be justified by the exercising of the right for the freedom of speech and its free expression. In this case it is out of place to say about the existence of “different views on any historical disputes.” “The attempts to whitewash the Nazi criminals not only defile the memory of the Nazi victims, but also threaten the humankind with the revival of the theories of racial superiority, the growth of xenophobia, which have nothing in common with the freedom of speech and the media,” the ministry reported.
“It should be noted that the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination obliges all its signatories, including Russia, to declare “any dissemination of the ideas, which are based on racial superiority or hatred as a crime punishable under the law,” the ministry said. “The attempts to equalize the historical role of the anti-Hitler coalition and the Nazis with their accomplices promote the creation of a distorted image of the Nazi criminals and make an obvious contribution in the dissemination of the Nazi ideas,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said.
“The interrelation between this legislative initiative and the laws on the ban for the homosexuality propaganda among adolescents and the insults on believers’ feelings is an obvious allegation and is devoid of any grounds,” the ministry said.
“We take with perplexing Mijatovic’s intention to interfere, moreover on the public scale, in the lawmaking in Russia, which is made under the democratic standards and the principle of the division of power. We take these actions as incorrect and getting beyond the mandate of the OSCE representative,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said.
“For our part, we confirm our readiness to build a mutually respectful and constructive cooperation with the OSCE human rights institutions,” the Russian Foreign Ministry reported.