PACE condemns Nazism and Stalinism. Moscow dissatisfied

The Parliamentary Assembly of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (PA OSCE) passed a resolution Friday, condemning the crimes of Nazism and Stalinism.

The document entitled "Divided Europe reunited: promoting human rights and civil liberties in the OSCE region in the 21^st century", was passed on the last day of PA OSCE in Vilnius. The resolution passed in support of the initiative of the European parliament (EP) to declare August 23, when 70 years ago the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact was signed, a Day of Remembrance for victims of Stalinism and Nazism.

The resolution is initiated by delegates from Lithuania (a member of the Lithuanian Parliament Vilija Aleknaite Abramikiene) and Slovenia (Robert Batelli). The resolution underlined that 20th century Europe had been held in the grip of two major totalitarian regimes, the Nazi and the Stalinist, which brought genocide, violations of human rights and freedoms, war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Deep concern expressed in the document in connection with glorification of totalitarian regimes, including the holding of public demonstrations glorifying the Nazi or Stalinist past, warnings of the possible strengthening of extremist regimes, including the neo-Nazi, are also expressed in the document. The resolution contains an appeal to member states of  the OSCE to open their historical and political archives, to fight xenophobia and aggressive nationalism.

Resolution of the PA OSCE aroused protests of Russian delegation. According to the head of Russia's delegation to the OSCE, Alexander Kozlovsky, putting the Nazi regime on the same scale as Stalin's in the Soviet Union, which "made a decisive contribution to defeat the fascism, is a violation of history".

Kozlovsky believes that thereby the OSCE, whose task is uniting not dividing, pushing business to split.  The head of Russia's delegation expressed hope that "it is possible to learn to speak non confrontational language".

We would like to remind that earlier the Russian State Duma passed a law under which individuals and organizations "falsifying history or misrepresenting it" are subject to criminal prosecution.