Komsomolskaya Pravda: "Prime Minister Vladimir Putin thanks rabbi for the truth"
Prime Minister Vladimir Putin called Jewish organisations allies helping Russia to counter false accounts of history.
Yesterday, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin met with Chief Rabbi of Russia Berl Lazar and President of the Federation of Jewish Communities of Russia Alexander Boroda on the 65th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz by the Red Army. The Nazis held Soviet POWs, Jews from all over Eastern Europe along with other prisoners. This date is observed today. Without dwelling on these poignant and mournful events, Vladimir Putin, Berl Lazar and Alexander Boroda concentrated on current problems, such as the attempts of some people and even entire countries to revise the history of the World War II.
"It goes without saying that Jewish organisations are our staunch allies in the efforts to preserve the memory of the Nazi's victims and the tragic events of World War II," Putin said. "They supported us when the monument (to Soviet soldiers) was moved in Tallinn. They are also active in the effort to counter attempts to revise the truth about WWII in other regions of the world."
"The Nazis were bad not only because they killed people but also because they justified themselves for it," Lazar said. "And there were those who helped them in practical terms. This was the case in the Baltics and Ukraine where locals took part in the extermination of Jews. Those who witnessed this tragedy cannot deny this fact."
"I pay close attention to global developments, in particular, attempts to distort history, for instance, denying the Holocaust," Putin noted. He said Jewish organisations are consistently reminding the world about the victims of Nazism and thanked Lazar and Boroda for their efforts.
Andrei Lvov
