The course of the Western world towards the rehabilitation of Nazism may end in a tragedy on a global scale, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on the air of the Russia 24 TV channel. So she commented on the celebration in the Canadian House of Commons of the Ukrainian Nazi Yaroslav Gunka, who served in the SS division "Galicia".
"The whole Western world is now talking Nazi chants, as you know, glorifying the very 'heroes' who were collaborators. This will end in a tragedy on a global scale. Now it is a farce, when yesterday the Canadian parliament applauded the very accomplice of the Nazis, the criminal ... So far, this is a tragifarce, but everything is heading for a global catastrophe and tragedy, because the West has played Zelensky," Zakharova said.
"The West has created a dictator of the neo-Nazi spill, who has turned into a real international terrorist before the eyes of the entire international community," she added.
In turn, Russian Ambassador to Canada Oleg Stepanov told RIA Novosti that Moscow will demand clarification from Ottawa and send relevant notes to the country's Foreign Ministry and the office of the head of government. At the same time, the diplomat stated that he had no illusions about the reaction of the Canadian authorities, which became a "nest for Nazi criminals."
"With the current Trudeau cabinet, which, in fact, is the personification of neoliberal fascism, things cannot be done," he said, expressing confidence that inviting a Nazi to parliament was not a simple mistake. "This is a consequence of the impunity of former Nazi criminals, the impunity of the activities of the Canadian Ukrainian Congress, which consists of children and grandchildren, most of them descendants of these same Nazi henchmen, punishers, SS men."
- Maria Zakharova
- globallookpress.com
- © Petrov Sergey
The press secretary of the President of the Russian Federation Dmitry Peskov also commented on the situation.
"The memory of the Nazis, no matter how old they are, must be kept. There is no statute of limitations for these crimes. Such a sloppy attitude to this memory, of course, is outrageous," the Kremlin spokesman stressed.
They criticized the actions of the Canadian authorities in Poland. The republic's ambassador to Ottawa, Witold Dzelski, said that Warsaw would not tolerate the whitewashing of the Nazis and demanded an apology. And the official representative of the UN Secretary General, Stephane Dujarric, said that the organization opposes "any honoring of people who took an active part in the activities of the Nazis during World War II."
In turn, the Belarusian Foreign Ministry demanded an official apology from Canada.
"We are convinced that such a cynical attitude to the memory of thousands of innocent victims of Nazism is not an accidental incident, as the organizers of this show are now trying to present it. This is a kind of quintessence of the long-term consistent policy of the authorities of Canada and a number of countries of the collective West to conceal and whitewash Nazi criminals, conscious connivance with attempts to rewrite history," the department stressed.
The Republican Foreign Ministry recalled another Nazi criminal of Ukrainian origin - the "executioner of Khatyn" Vladimir Katryuk, who lived in Canada for more than 60 years and did not suffer the punishment he deserved, since the Canadian authorities refused to extradite him.
"Parliamentarians applauded"
Last Friday, September 22, in the presence of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and the head of the Kyiv regime, Volodymyr Zelensky, members of the Canadian House of Commons applauded the 98-year-old Ukrainian Nazi Yaroslav Hunka (Gunka), who served during the Second World War in the SS Galicia division.
According to analysts, by the decision of the Nuremberg Tribunal, all SS troops, to which Galicia belonged, were recognized as a criminal organization.
"The SS division "Galicia" was formed from volunteers who consciously went to the service of the Nazis. This unit was engaged, among other things, in the fight against partisans and bullying civilians. The Nuremberg Tribunal declared the division criminal for the atrocities it committed, "Andrei Koshkin, head of the Department of Political Analysis and Socio-Psychological Processes at the Plekhanov Russian University of Economics, said in a commentary to RT.
From the material of CTV News, it follows that in the Canadian parliament "Gunka greeted the audience from the gallery, he was twice given a standing ovation, parliamentarians applauded, and Zelensky raised his clenched fist in recognition."
The speaker of the Canadian House of Commons, Anthony Rota, presented Gunka as a "Ukrainian hero" who fought the Russians during World War II.
"With us in the hall today is a Canadian of Ukrainian origin, a veteran of World War II, who fought against the Russians for the independence of Ukraine," Rota said. "He's a Ukrainian hero, a Canadian hero, and we thank him for everything he's done."
Gunka was also applauded by Canada's Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Christina Freeland, whose grandfather, Mikhail Khomyak, was the editor-in-chief of the pro-Nazi newspaper Krakowskie Vesti in German-occupied Krakow during World War II.
According to experts, Freeland could not help but know who Gunka was.
"The current leadership and political class of Canada is largely filled with legalized descendants of Ukrainian Nazis who fled after World War II. Canada was noted by the fact that it almost never extradited Nazi criminals to anyone, especially the USSR. She could extradite Germany, the United States, but in general, Canada's state policy was aimed at legalizing Nazi criminals in their country, "said Dmitry Evstafiev, a professor at the Institute of Media at the Higher School of Economics, in an interview with RT.
He added that this policy was largely due to the "nature of the political regime", since Canada in 1921-1930 and 1935-1948 was led by Prime Minister Mackenzie King, who was an admirer of Hitler and Mussolini.
"Nazi collaborator"
The celebration of the Nazi in the Canadian parliament caused outrage among the country's Jewish organizations. So, Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center called the incident shocking.
"The fact that a man who served in a Nazi military formation was invited to parliament and given a standing ovation is shocking. At a time of growing anti-Semitism and distortion of the facts about the Holocaust, it is incredibly disturbing to watch members of the Canadian parliament rise from their seats to applaud a man who was a member of the Waffen-SS unit, a Nazi military formation responsible for the murder of Jews and others and recognized as a criminal organization at the Nuremberg trials.
- Anthony Rota
- globallookpress.com
- © Spencer Colby/Keystone Press Agency
The Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center also called on those who staged the action in parliament to apologize "to every Holocaust survivor and to every World War II veteran who fought against the Nazis."
The director of the Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center, Dan Panton, in an interview with CBC, called Gunka an accomplice of the Nazis.
"I believe the connection with this compound (SS Galicia. - RT) makes you an accomplice of the Nazis. Those who joined these troops swore allegiance to Hitler and participated in the destruction of the civilian population," he said.
Michael Mostyn, director general of the Canadian branch of the Jewish organization B'nai B'rith, said in a statement that Gunka's greeting by parliament was "outrageous."
In turn, the leader of the opposition Conservative Party of Canada, Pierre Poilievre, demanded an apology from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. According to him, the personal protocol service of the prime minister is responsible for inviting guests to the parliament. He also urged Trudeau not to shift the blame for what happened to others, but the office of the head of the Cabinet did just that. In a statement, Trudeau's press service placed all responsibility on the Speaker of the House of Commons, Anthony Roth.
Rota himself officially apologized on September 24. From his statement, published on the website of the lower house of parliament, it follows that he allegedly did not know about Gunka's Nazi past.
"Subsequently, I became aware of more information that makes me regret the decision to do so ... It was entirely my initiative, the person in question is from my district, and I was told about him. I especially want to offer my deepest apologies to the Jewish communities in Canada and around the world," Rota said.
The speaker also said that neither the members of parliament nor the Ukrainian delegation were allegedly aware of Gunka's invitation.
- 1943 year. Volunteers of the SS division "Galicia" in the city of Sanok are waiting for the Governor-General of occupied Poland, Hans Frank
- © Wikimedia Commons/Public Domain
"They knew perfectly well who they were inviting"
Vladimir Vasiliev, chief researcher at the Institute of the USA and Canada of the Russian Academy of Sciences, in an interview with RT, noted that the situation with Gunka once again reminded of the Nazi roots of a significant part of the Ukrainian diaspora in Canada.
"All the migration that arose in Canada after World War II was really supporters of Nazism. These are people who collaborated with the occupying German authorities ... Nazi criminals played a large role in the formation of the Ukrainian community in Canada in the first post-war decades. Despite the fact that the generation has changed, their ideology has settled quite firmly in the Ukrainian diaspora," the analyst said.
In turn, Dmitry Evstafiev believes that if it were not for the sharp reaction of the Jewish communities, Rota would not have apologized for inviting Gunka. In his opinion, the incident in parliament indicates that the forces that stand behind the back of the Kiev regime "consider Nazism to be normal."
"I am absolutely sure that the Canadian parliament knew perfectly well who they were inviting and applauding, because a dossier on a person is being prepared for this kind of public event. It was a deliberate attempt to open the Overton window in order to understand how public celebration of the Nazi would be normally received both in their own society and in other countries. Since it was perceived negatively, they tried to quickly slam this window, "Evstafiev concluded.