Russia criminalises denial of ‘Soviet genocide’ by Nazis during World War II

Russia has formally designated Nazi crimes against the Soviet population during World War II as genocide and criminalised their denial, after President Vladimir Putin

signed amendments to the country’s criminal code, the Kremlin said on Thursday.

The term “genocide of the Soviet people” has increasingly been used in Russia in recent years. Authorities have also proposed repurposing a closed museum dedicated to the Soviet-era Gulag system into one focused on victims of Nazi crimes.

Moscow has pushed back against what it describes as attempts to downplay the suffering of Soviet citizens during the war and the Soviet Union’s role in defeating Nazi Germany.

Historians and courts widely agree that the German occupation of the Soviet Union from 1941 to 1944 involved extensive war crimes and crimes against humanity. The nearly 900-day siege of Leningrad – now St Petersburg – alone is estimated to have killed about 1.1 million people.

However, in established historical and legal scholarship, the term genocide has typically been applied to specific elements of Nazi policy, particularly the systematic murder of Jews and of Sinti and Roma people.

The new Russian classification could create risks for researchers, journalists and others who do not adhere to the official line. Penalties include fines of up to three years’ income or forced labour for up to three years.