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Russia ready for dialogue with US on historical memory — top diplomat

In his speech at the ceremony of opening the fifth World Holocaust Forum in Jerusalem in January this year, US Vice President Mike Pence did not mention the Soviet Union a single time, the Russian foreign minister recalled

MOSCOW, May 12. /TASS/. Moscow will find a format of a dialogue in interaction with Washington to discuss the issues of historical memory, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Tuesday.

The Russian foreign minister earlier labeled as a "deplorable story" a report by the US White House that the United States and Great Britain had allegedly defeated Nazism on their own but said that such "things do not surprise him."

"This is the result of indoctrinating public consciousness, including, as it turns out, the consciousness of politicians," Lavrov explained.

"They have not developed immunity to what is disseminated by propaganda, which tries to equate Nazis and those who liberated Europe from the brown plague and blame the Soviet Union for unleashing World War Two," Russia’s top diplomat pointed out.

"Unfortunately, we do not have a structure with it [Washington] that would deal with historical issues," the Russian foreign minister said.

"But we will find a format with Americans, within which it will be possible to raise these issues and get to hear how they assess the current situation," Lavrov said. 

In this regard, Russia’s foreign minister recalled a speech by US Vice President Mike Pence at the ceremony of opening the fifth World Holocaust Forum in Jerusalem in January this year.

"To the surprise of several thousand participants in the ceremony, Pence who represented the United States did not mention the Soviet Union a single time in his so emotional and pathos-filled speech," Russia’s foreign minister pointed out.

"And when the US vice president mentioned the liberation of Auschwitz [concentration camp] in his speech, he said the following: ‘When soldiers opened the gates of Auschwitz on January 27, 1945,' they were horrified by what they saw," Lavrov said.

"However, he did not say a word as to whose army the soldiers belonged to," Russia’s top diplomat stated.