Russian MPs seek 3 yr jail terms for those comparing USSR to Nazi Germany

The Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945. Banner of Victory over Berlin, 1945 (RIA Novosti / Haldei)

The Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945. Banner of Victory over Berlin, 1945 (RIA Novosti / Haldei)

Lawmakers for the nationalist Liberal Democratic Party of Russia have proposed a bill that would punish anyone making public statements equating the USSR with Nazi Germany a criminal offence by up to three years in prison.

The bill’s sponsor, Vitaliy Zolochevskiy, told Izvestia daily
that he wanted to toughen the existing law on responsibility for
rehabilitation of Nazism in view of the current struggle against
attempts to rewrite history that is taking place in Russia and
abroad. He added that in a recent opinion poll by the VTsIOM
state agency 83 percent of Russians agreed it was necessary to
fight against the falsification of history.

The changes suggested in the bill are especially urgent in
the year of the 70th anniversary of the victory
” in World
War II, said an explanatory note to Zolochevskiy’s bill.

The bill introduces amendments to the law that currently lists as
a crime the public denial of facts established by the
International Military Court for major war criminals of Axis
countries, public approval of crimes determined by Nuremberg
Tribunal and knowingly distributing false facts about the actions
of the USSR during WWII. The amended article would criminalize
publicly equating the USSR political regime with the one of
Nazi Germany
.”

The punishment listed in the law remains the same – up to 300,000
rubles ($6,000) in fines and up to three years behind bars.

Senior Russian officials, including President Vladimir Putin,
have said that the attempts to rewrite history of WWII and
rehabilitate Nazism are one of the major threats facing Russia,
Europe and the world as a whole.

READ MORE: Putin blasts ‘cynical attempts to
rewrite history’ at Russia-China WWII conference

Earlier this month, Putin denounced any attempts to rehabilitate
Nazism in his message to the Russian-Chinese conference dedicated
to the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II.

We consider the cynical attempts to rewrite history so that
it matches someone’s urgent political interests, to rehabilitate
Nazis and their collaborators, as absolutely inadmissible
,”
Putin said. “Such actions are not only immoral, they are
extremely dangerous as they push the world toward new conflicts,
cruelty and violence
,” he said.

In mid-March, Putin said that the objective of politicians who
make such attempts to rewrite history was “to undermine the
power and moral authority of modern Russia and deprive it of the
victor nation status, with all the consequences that would follow
in international law
.”

Source Article from http://rt.com/politics/259913-russia-bill-against-nazism/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=RSS

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