MOSCOW. Sept 27 (Interfax) - The Canadian House of Commons should find a way to condemn Nazism so that it does not remain tainted following a scandal involving the invitation of a former Nazi veteran, Russian presidential press secretary Dmitry Peskov said.
"As concerns the House of Commons speaker's resignation, he has taken responsibility. But what about the parliament itself, which gave the Nazi a standing ovation? Reason dictates the need for some condemnation of Nazism here. The parliament must do it, or otherwise this will be a parliament tainted by that applause," Peskov told journalists on Wednesday when commenting on Canadian House of Commons Speaker Anthony Rota's resignation.
"I am not even talking about an international response, which we'd prefer to hear rather than see silence on this account," he said.
The Canadian authorities should bring the 98-year-old Ukrainian veteran Yaroslav Hunka, who was invited to the House of Commons for recognition before it turned out that he had fought for the Nazis during WWII, to trial, Peskov said.
"We've heard statements from Poland that some of its representatives are going to prosecute this Nazi. It's obvious that such crimes can't have any statute of limitations. Of course, we believe here that the Canadian authorities should bring that criminal to trial, or extradite him to those who are going to bring him to trial," he said.
"There's hardly even any room for any inquiry here. We're definitely talking about a Nazi," he said.
As reported earlier, after meeting with House of Commons leaders and government members, Rota announced his resignation in the wake of the scandal that flared up after it turned out that a former Waffen-SS Grenadier Division member had been invited to the Canadian parliament for recognition.
Rota invited Hunka to the House of Commons as a WWII veteran, among other guests present during Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky's appearance. It turned out later that Hunka actually fought for the Nazis.