EU Resolution Against Fascism Leniency Should Include Ukraine - Russian MP

A resolution calling on the European Parliament to impose sanctions on Baltic governments over their failure to stem the rise of far-right and fascist sentiments should also include Ukraine, Russian State Duma’s International Affairs Committee chairman Leonid Slutsky told Sputnik Friday.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — The motion is being prepared by the European United Left — Nordic Green Left parliamentary faction, according to its member, Jiri Mastalka, who spoke with Russia’s Izvestiya newspaper in an interview published on Friday. According to Mastalka, the resolution will go to the EU Parliament in fall.

"I think that if such a resolution is adopted, historic justice will be restored. Moreover, it is quite logical to include Ukraine, where today's fighters for independence openly use German fascist symbols, in its provisions," Slutsky said.

According to Slutsky, a number of European states consistently try to belittle the role of the Red Army and rewrite the history of World War II "glorifying former Hitler's executioners and Nazis."

The leftist parliamentary faction decided to act after seeing the number of rallies and marches organized by far-right groups with permission from Baltic authorities rise in the past years. Estonia and Latvia have been holding annual parades of Waffen-SS veterans since the fall of the Soviet Union.

The lawmaker's comments comes just days after a decision of Polish President Andrzej Duda to approve a bill on the prohibition of communist propaganda that would regulate the demolition of almost 500 Soviet-era monuments throughout the country.