STATEMENT BY THE COUNCIL OF FEDERATION OF THE FEDERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION IN CONNECTION WITH THE 65TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE NUREMBERG TRIALS

In connection with the 65th anniversary of the beginning of work of the International Military Tribunal in Nuremberg, which legally confirmed the ultimate defeat of fascism, the Council of Federation of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation draws the international community's attention to the need to counteract attempts by certain forces to distort and diminish the historic role of the Nuremberg Trials and thereby to revise the results of World War II and to justify the Nazis and their accomplices and the atrocities committed by them.
The International Military Tribunal established by the London Agreement of 8 August 1945 signed by the four Allied Powers identified Hitler’s Germany as the state responsible for unleashing World War II and condemned its adventurous and treacherous policy and racist ideology. The Tribunal went down in history as the Trial of Nations over the leaders of Nazi Germany and set the precedent for an international tribunal’s jurisdiction over the highest-ranking officials, political and military leaders of an aggressor State.
The Nuremberg Trials played a critical role in the progressive development of contemporary international law and the shaping of international criminal justice. The principles recognized by the Charter of the International Military Tribunal and reconfirmed in the General Assembly resolutions of 11 December 1946 and 27 November 1947 laid a foundation for post-war international legal instruments aimed at preventing wars, war crimes, genocide, torture and other atrocities, as well as at establishing the non-applicability of statutory limitations to war crimes and crimes against humanity.
The Judgment of the Nuremberg Tribunal is still relevant today, when the attempts to revise the history of World War II are being more frequent, revealing the tendency to put the blame for it not only on Hitler’s Germany but also on the Soviet Union, which became the target of a treacherous attack and made a decisive contribution to the defeat of German fascist aggressors.
The Russian Federation repeatedly and strongly criticized the policies and actions of certain European States, which turned a blind eye to the prosecution of the Great Patriotic War veterans and activists of antifascist movements, marches and gatherings held by the former participants of Nazi and collaborationist groupings, and the destruction of monuments to Soviet liberators. Our nation, which suffered tremendous losses during the Great Patriotic War, views such actions as sacrilegious and offensive.
In this year of the 65th anniversary of the Great Victory over fascism, the Council of Federation of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation strongly affirms the continuing historic importance of the Nuremberg Trials, the results of which cannot be revised. The activities of the International Military Tribunal must provide a vivid example of the triumph of justice and remind of the inevitability of crimes against peace and humanity. The tragic pages of history that were brought to closure by the Nuremberg Trials must not reopen.
Staying committed to the Nuremberg principles today means keeping alive and developing the spirit of cooperation and goodwill and remaining vigilant and intolerant to any attempts to infringe the international law.
The Council of Federation of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation calls upon the international community to respect and defend the principles of international criminal law elaborated in Nuremberg as an integral and indispensable pillar of the current world order.
The Council of Federation 
of the Federal Assembly 
of the Russian Federation

Moscow
24 November 2010

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