KHABAROVSK. Sept 6 (Interfax) - Russian Prosecutor General Igor Krasnov has called for including Nazism rehabilitation, justification and propaganda in the notion of extremist activity.
"I believe it is necessary to include the rehabilitation, justification and propaganda of Nazism in the notion of extremist activity, which will considerably broaden the potential for countering such phenomena," Krasnov said at the Khabarovsk Process: Historical Lessons and Modern Challenges forum on Monday.
The prosecutor general also believes it is important to consider additional legal regulation to commemorate civilians of the Soviet Union "who were exiled and exterminated during the Great Patriotic War" of 1941-1945, considering that the existent law applies only to persons who died in the line of duty and during the hostilities.
"I have no doubt that such measures will not only fill the gaps in legal regulation but will also have a high political significance for preservation of the historical memory and strengthening of international positions of the Russian Federation in the prevention of attempts to falsify facts about the activity of the Soviet Union during WWII," Krasnov said.
The Russian Prosecutor General's Office is continuing to establish circumstances of recently detected crimes committed during WWII and their perpetrators, he said.
"Archival materials regarding crimes of punitive units and their abettors on the occupied territories have been selected and declassified. Criminal cases of genocide of Soviet citizens are being investigated under the supervision of the Prosecutor General's Office," Krasnov said.
In October 2020, for the first time in the history of the Russian Federation, a district court in the Novgorod region upheld a prosecutor's motion for the recognition of killings of civilians and prisoners of war near the village of Zhestyanaya Gorka in 1942-1943 as war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide of peoples of the Soviet Union, he said.
"A similar prosecution motion was processed and upheld by the Pskov Regional Court less than two weeks ago, following the discovery of hitherto unknown common graves of victims of the Nazi. Relevant materials are being prepared for filing with courts in the Bryansk and Rostov regions," Krasnov said.