MOSCOW, March 4. /TASS/. Russia’s Investigative Committee has launched a criminal case against employees of the Memorial historical educational society (recognized in Russia as a foreign agent and dissolved by court) on the charge of exonerating Nazism, a law enforcement source told TASS on Saturday.
"A criminal case under Article 354.1 (exoneration of Nazism) has been opened against unidentified employees of the Memorial society," the source said adding that the case was investigated by Moscow’s Tverskoy branch of the Russian Investigative Committee.
According to the source, Memorial was suspected of putting those who collaborated with the Nazi invaders during World War Two on the lists of repression victims.
"The investigation believes that some Memorial employees treated collaborators as victims of political repression and spread knowingly misleading information via the media about the Soviet Union’s actions during World War II," he said.
There was no official comment from the Russian Investigative Committee to TASS.
In late December 2021, Russia’s Supreme Court ruled to dissolve the International Memorial historical educational society for violating the law on foreign agents.