MOSCOW, September 27. /TASS/. Russia’s Supreme Court has turned down a petition to posthumously rehabilitate Vladimir Artsezo, a former deputy commander of the 57th Army of the Soviet Union, who during World War II defected to the invading enemy, and agreed to collaborate with the Nazis, eventually rising to the rank of major general in the Wehrmacht, the press-service for the Chief Military Prosecutor’s Office said on Friday.

"The Supreme Court has studied the conclusion produced by Deputy Prosecutor-General, Chief Military Prosecutor Valery Petrov to the effect the former deputy commander of the 57th Army for the armored units, Colonel Vladimir Artsezo, does not qualify for rehabilitation. The Supreme Court fully agreed with this conclusion," the spokesman for the military prosecutor’s office said.

In August 2019, a foreign citizen asked the office of Russia’s Chief Military Prosecutor to re-examine the Artsezo case. In February 1947, the Military Panel of Russia’s Supreme Court found him guilty of high treason and sentenced him to capital punishment (execution by a firing squad). Artsezo, the deputy commander of the 57th Army for armored units, in May 1942 surrendered to the enemy and disclosed classified information concerning the Red Army’s forces to the invading Nazi command. The military prosecutor’s office corroborated that Artsezo held an anti-Soviet bent, had no faith in the Red Army’s eventual victory over Nazism and for this reason defected to the enemy.

Starting from September 1942, he held a position at the reconnaissance department of the German army’s Southern Front headquarters. Later, he was chief of the officers school of the collaborationist Russian Liberation Army and an inspector under General Ernst Koestring. In February 1945, Artsezo was appointed chief of the Russian Liberation Army’s combat training department. The turncoat Russian officer received two decorations from the Nazi command and was promoted to major general. In an attempt to escape punishment, he surrendered to the US forces on May 8, 1945. On February 12, 1946, he was handed over to the Soviet forces in the American zone of occupation.

"The Chief Military Prosecutor’s Office examined the criminal case to find out that the guilty verdict was confirmed by evidence studied in court and properly interpreted in the court’s verdict," the Chief Military Prosecutor’s Office said.

Since October 1991, military prosecutors have scrutinized 270,000 criminal cases involving 300,000 persons under a law enacted by the Yeltsin administration called — On the Rehabilitation of Victims of Political Repression. A total of 180,000 convictions were recognized as justified.