All news

Russia criticizes EU member-states for glorification of Nazi henchmen

In a number of European countries, thousands upon thousands of residents have been deprived of citizenship exceptionally on the grounds of their ethnic origins, the report said

GENEVA, March 24. /TASS/. Russian delegation to the 28th session of the UN Human Rights Council underway in Geneva has levied criticism at the ongoing glorification of Nazi henchmen in a number of European countries and in Ukraine.

Members of the delegation took part in a discussion on elimination of racism and racial discrimination that was held on Monday night.

A report the delegation circulated said members of ethnic minorities were increasingly often turned into targets of police violence in the U.S. and proof of it was found in the documents of the U.S. Department of Justice that had confirmed the presence of systemic showings of racism in the actions of policemen in Ferguson, as well as a new instance of killing of an Afro-American man in Los Angeles by police officers at the beginning of March.

In a number of European countries, thousands upon thousands of residents have been deprived of citizenship exceptionally on the grounds of their ethnic origins for more than twenty years already, the report said.

It stated the willingness of certain political forces in the EU to revive cannibalistic ideologies of the 20th century in a pursuit of narrow political objectives. Specifically, it pointed out the marches and gatherings of SS legion veterans and their followers, including the one that took place in the Latvian capital Riga on March 16.

The reports said, among other things, that the Latvian nationalists held a torch procession with an overt use of swastikas on February 24 and Estonia hosted a cynical exhibition on the issue of the Holocaust.

"Particularly bewildering was a meeting that the Estonian Prime Minister, Taavi Roivas held on February 12 with veterans of the 20th grenadier division of the SS," the report said.

"Even the memory of those who lost their lives in the struggle with Nazism is subjected to outrages," the document said. "Last year, a wave of desecrations of the monuments and graves of fighters against Nazism rolled through the EU member-states.’

The Russian government proceeds from the conviction that the underassessment of the pro-Nazi tendencies and connivance at their spread is fraught with a surge of radical extremist movements in Europe and elsewhere.

Proof of this is found in the events in Ukraine where the Nazi collaborators like Stepan Bandera and Roman Shukhevich have been declared national heroes and the day of setting up of the Ukrainian Rebel Army, which sprang to notoriety during World War II for its atrocious crimes, has been made a national holiday.

"Neo-Nazism is turning in a de facto state ideology in today’s Ukraine and connivance at the tendency may have the direst consequences," the report said.