MOSCOW, January 14. /TASS/. Russia’s Investigative Committee has opened a number of criminal cases on charges of rehabilitation of Nazism in Ukraine, chairman of the Russian Investigative Committee Alexander Bastrykin said in an interview with the Rossiiskaya Gazeta daily.

"We cannot stay indifferent to numerous cases of desecration of sculptural and architectural structures dedicated to anti-Nazi efforts and victims of Nazism, as well as desecration of the symbols of Russia’s military glory in Ukraine," he said. "I think you remember what Ukrainian nationalists did to such monuments in the town of Glinyany in the Lvov region, in Novomoskovsk in the Dnepropetrovsk region. The Investigative Committee opened criminal cases under article Rehabilitation of Nazism of our Criminal Code. These crimes are being probed into."

Article 354.1 of the Russian Criminal Code (Rehabilitation of Nazism) was introduced in May 2014. It envisages punishment for denial of the facts and approval of crimes established by the Nuremberg Trials verdict, and for dissemination of untrue information about the former Soviet Union’s activities during World War II. These charges carry a punishment from a fine to a prison term of up to three years, and up to five years behind bars in case of malfeasance or dissemination of false information via the mass media. The article also provides for punishment for desecration of Russian military glory symbols.