MOSCOW, January 29. /ITAR-TASS/. Speaker of the Upper House of the Russian parliament Valentina Matviyenko has criticized as ”blasphemy” a question put to the audiences of Dozhd television in connection with the 70th anniversary since lifting the Leningrad blockade.

"It was an act of blasphemy — another one in a series of attempts to falsify the results of World War II, rehabilitate those who had unleashed that war and who were responsible for millions of the victims. I could not even imagine that on the eve of the 70th anniversary of the total liberation of Leningrad from Nazi blockade such a question could be asked in the country which suffered the worst losses in order to defeat fascism," the speaker said.

Nonetheless, Matviyenko does not think that Dozhd television should be closed. Its journalists and the journalist community should admit the mistake and apologize, Matviyenko said.

On the eve of the 70th anniversary since lifting the Leningrad blockade, visitors to Dozhd Internet portal were asked to say whether Leningrad should have been surrendered in order to save its residents.

The question put to the visitors to Dozhd Internet portal caused uproar in society. Deputies of the State Duma have branded it as "rehabilitation of Nazism and an act of betrayal of their own people".