Pres Medvedev: Stalin can't be pardoned for crimes he committed against his own people

May 07 2010     11:58

Speaking to Izvestia, Russia Pres Medvedev says the heroization of Nazi criminals in the Baltic countries, Ukraine and Georgia is a moral crime, Ukrayinska Pravda reports May 7.

"Of course, no one idealizes the role of the Soviet Union after WWII. However, the henchmen should never be called the victims. Those who put the roles played by the Red Army and Nazi oppressors on the same level are committing a moral crime," Medvedev said.

Asked whether, in his opinion, the trials over Nazi criminals should be terminated and "whether it is time to pardon them" the Russian president answered:

"You mean the crimes committed by notorious Demyaniuk. In this case, names do not matter. Such crimes have no statute of limitations, no matter who the person is. It is the issue of our moral responsibility in the face of future generations, and if we shut our eyes to the crimes now they can be repeated in the future in different countries."  

"Therefore, though it may sound too tough, such crimes really have no statue of limitations and their perpetrators must be held accountable regardless of their age," Medvedev added.

Simultaneously, Medvedev called the USSR a totalitarian state.

"The Soviet Union was a highly controversial state. To put it straight, the Soviet regime cannot be called anything else but the totalitarian one. Unfortunately, the basic human rights and freedoms were suppressed, with Soviet citizens who defeated Nazism sent to concentration camps after the war. The same repression took place in the countries of the Socialist camp. Such crimes cannot be deleted from history, of course," Medvedev went on.

The point is, he continued, that it takes a good historian as well as the common sense of an ordinary man to distinguish between the roles of the Red Army and the Soviet state during the war and what happened later.

Josef Stalin cannot be pardoned for the crimes against his own people, Medvedev maintains.

"The role of Stalin as assessed by the leaders of new Russia is that of a gross criminal," the Russian president said. 

"Regardless of the fact that Stalin was a hard worker who steered his country to economic success, he cannot be pardoned – not for the crimes committed against his own people," Medvedev added.

Source: http://www.zik.com.ua/en/news/2010/05/07/227753