“On December 19, 2023, we submitted an appeal from the Prosecutor General’s Office to the Canadian Foreign Ministry... The note states that the Russian Investigative Committee opened a criminal case against him under the article on actions aimed at the complete destruction of an ethnic group,” he told TASS.
Stepanov clarified that there is no extradition treaty between Russia and Canada, but there is an agreement on mutual legal assistance. According to the diplomat, Gunka’s extradition is a matter of principle.
“Gunka admitted that he voluntarily joined the SS and, therefore, committed all these crimes in which the Galicia division was involved. That is, a Nazi lives here. Will Canadian justice prosecute him here? That’s the question,” Stepanov said.
The press service of the Canadian Ministry of Justice previously refused to answer whether the department had received a request from the Russian prosecutor's office for the extradition of 98-year-old Ukrainian nationalist Yaroslav Gunka.
On September 22, 98-year-old Yaroslav Gunka, a former soldier of the “Galicia” volunteer division of the SS troops, was invited to a meeting of the Canadian parliament in honor of the visit of Vladimir Zelensky. The leadership of Canada and Vladimir Zelensky greeted the SS man with standing applause.
During a plenary meeting of the Valdai Club, Vladimir Putin said that the speaker of the Canadian parliament could not help but understand who he was applauding, so he was either a scoundrel or an idiot.