Statement ”On the inadmissibility of the repressive policy of the Latvian, Lithuanian, and Estonian governments against the Russian-speaking population“

State Duma

”The State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation resolutely condemns the repressive policy of the Latvian, Lithuanian and Estonian governments against the Russian-speaking population.

More than 430 villages on the territories of modern Belarus and Russia were burned and more than 13 thousand civilians were killed 80 years ago as a result of the ruthless operation cynically called “Winter Magic”. Latvians, Lithuanians and Estonians, quickly recruited into police battalions, made up the majority of the punishers.

The Nuremberg Trial denounced the crimes of the Nazis and their accomplices, but the ideas of racial superiority have not been completely cut off — racism is being revived and recklessly promoted by the states of “pseudo-liberal democracy”.

The Baltic states have been pursuing a repressive policy and promoting nationalism and intolerance against Russians for a long time. Brutal Russophobic persecution, bullying of children in schools and even kindergartens, harassment of journalists, destruction of cultural and memorial heritage and change of historical facts has become a standard. These countries have embarked on a criminal course of total displacement of the Russian language from all social spheres, mass media and education system. The Baltic authorities do not conceal their neo-fascist affiliations supporting annual marches of SS legions and also banning the Immortal Regiment rally meant to honor the veterans who liberated the Baltics from the Nazis.

The Latvian, Lithuanian, and Estonian governments indulge in iniquity and severe violation of fundamental human rights and freedoms which are enshrined in the constitutions of these states, the laws on national minorities, social security, and education.

Having accepted the Baltic states into the “European family”, the two-faced Western countries turn a blind eye to the failure of these states to fulfill their international obligations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms and disregard of the norms of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

The Members of the State Duma oppose any discrimination based on race, skin color, national or ethnic origin, political or other views and require the Baltic states and the Russophobic Western countries to comply with the principles of international law and put an end to the infringement of the fundamental rights of the Russian-speaking population.“