Moscow considers any attempts to heroize Nazism followers and former Waffen SS officers to be unacceptable. This came from the Russian Ambassador to the UN Vitaly Churkin the day before the beginning of a parade of Nazi ex-Legionnaires, due in the Latvian capital city of Riga.
In recent years, fancily dressed Latvians have been taking to the streets on March 16th to mark the anniversary of establishing the Latvian Legion, which was part of the Waffen SS, one of the cruelest special units of Germany. Under command of Heinrich Himmler, they were equipped with the most up-to-date armaments and took a direct part in acts of genocide against the peaceful population of Europe and the Soviet Union. Particularly, they killed over 33 thousand people outside Kiev in September 1941.
The international community has long ago declared the Waffen SS a criminal organization and the UN Commission on Human Rights condemned any glorification of its veterans. Still, numerous parades were held by the former Legionnaires practically in the center of Europe, despite antifascist movements' attempts to interfere with them. The President of Latvia made a statement several years ago that he didn't regard Latvian SS-men as Nazis and criminals. This approach forced Moscow to remind the international community of the unacceptability of revising the results of the Second World War and the role of SS units in it.
The decision, made by Riga authorities this year to prohibit the march of former SS members, is likely to be disregarded by the ex-Legionnaires and young neo-Nazis. Leaders of the ruling party and the Ministry for Internal Affairs also oppose the demonstration. The issue of how the international community may influence the situation, remains open, says Mikhail Dimurin, an adviser at the "Historical Memory" Foundation:
"The attitude of the international community towards those who fought with Hitler Germany, is laid down in the UN Charter, which allows the UN members to take measures against them without any orders of the Security Council. If political persuasive measures, which should be therefore applied against the authorities of Latvia and Estonia, are ineffective, the UN will have to take a more active part in handling this issue. Even if it becomes necessary to impose political sanctions against the governments, parties and countries, which are attempting to turn the followers of the Nazi Germany regime into heroes".
Given the imminent conflict between the Riga authorities and ultra-nationalists, the Federation of Jewish Communities of Russia called upon the EU and UN leaderships to examine the attempts to rehabilitate Nazi criminals and ideology made in Europe, particularly in Latvia and Ukraine.
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