European deputies in Strasbourg on Thursday, January 23, adopted a resolution condemning the Russian regime's systematic falsification of historical arguments to justify its illegal aggressive war against Ukraine.
We are talking about the resolution Disinformation and historical falsification of Russia to justify its aggressive war against Ukraine.
The Russian Federation spreads historical falsifications to justify war
It is noted that the Kremlin was helped to “revive imperialist policy and use history for its criminal purposes” by the denial of the crimes of the USSR regime, the glorification of Stalinism, the suppression of attempts to conduct historical research, the distortion of historical facts, the lack of open public debate and proper education in the field of history in the Russian Federation.
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MEPs called on the EU to “quickly and thoroughly” impose sanctions against propaganda media in the Russian Federation that are conducting disinformation campaigns in order to justify the war against Ukraine.
They also called on EU member states to increase support for independent Russian media in exile in order to enable a diversity of voices in Russian-language media.
The MEPs reject all statements by the Russian regime that attempt to justify the war against Ukraine, stressing that no political, economic, military, historical or any other grounds can serve as a justification for this.
The resolution also condemns Moscow's falsification and use of distorted historical arguments, in particular regarding the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, in an attempt to manipulate public opinion in the country in order to gain popular support for waging war against Ukraine.
Another point is a negative assessment of Moscow's attempt to use religion for geopolitical purposes, in particular through the instrumentalization of the Russian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate to influence and control the Orthodox population in Ukraine, Georgia, Moldova, Serbia and other countries.
It is noted that in order to more rigorously counter Russian disinformation, EU institutions and its member states must join forces. And EU citizens must learn to critically evaluate information, questioning its origins and intentions, especially when it comes to narratives related to Russia.
In addition, Russia's attempts to distort the history of Ukraine have a negative impact on the whole of Europe, as they undermine the collective memory and identity of Europeans.
In this regard, the European Parliament called on Member States to better fund education and research into common European history. MEPs also called for a ban on the use of Nazi and Soviet communist symbols, as well as symbols of Russia's aggression against Ukraine, in the EU.
In order for the EU to learn more about the crimes of the Soviet regime in the 20th century, the European Parliament calls for commemoration of the victims of the Kremlin's crimes, such as the mass deportations of the Crimean Tatar people and the peoples of the Baltic states, the Gulag system, the Holodomor, the Katyn massacre and the Upper Silesian tragedy.
