Read excerpts from statement of Deputy Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation to the OSCE Alexander Volgarev (meeting of the OSCE Permanent Council, 26 January 2023)
Постпредство России при ОБСЕInternational Holocaust Remembrance Day
On 27 January 1944, the inhuman blockade of Leningrad, one of the bloodiest pages of the Second World War, was completely lifted. As with the Holocaust, it was a mass and targeted extermination of civilians
On 27 January 1945, the Red Army liberated the largest concentration camp, Auschwitz-Birkenau (Auschwitz). About 4 mln people, including about a million Jews, were murdered in the millstone of that death factory
The decision of Polish authorities to exclude Russia from the ceremony marking the 78th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz is a blatant mockery of historical memory and common sense
In 2005 UNGA proclaimed 27 January as International Holocaust Remembrance Day. It claimed the lives of 6 mln. Jews, 40% of whom were citizens of the Soviet Union. The Soviet people lost more than 26 mln. of their fellow citizens in the war with Nazi Germany
Attempts to deny the Holocaust, spread of racism, Nazism, neo-Nazism and racial intolerance pose a direct threat to peace and security. It is imperative to include neo-Nazism on the OSCE human dimension agenda
There are worrying trends in the OSCE region of increasing anti-Semitism, Holocaust denial, and the promotion of the glorification of Nazism and neo-Nazism by both national authorities and external curators of particular countries or territories
The most revealing in this respect is the policy of the masters of the Kiev regime, who hypocritically turn a blind eye to the cultivation of neo-Nazi sentiments in Ukraine. In terms of Washington's nurturing of hateful ideas, the situation in Kosovo is typical
The rise of anti-Semitism in Germany, the UK, Canada and the US remains a problem
In Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia, "rallies" and torchlit processions continue in honour of those who actively collaborated with the Nazis and were complicit in their crimes. A campaign to destroy Soviet war memorials is in full swing
The blasphemous desecration of military graves is also in the same vein. A policy of state vandalism is openly pursued against symbols of the Victory over Nazism