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PACE to equate communism with Nazism and declare it criminal ideology
12/22/2005 17:33
Communism is not a threat to the world nowadays, which cannot be said about Islamism or fascism
The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe decided to choose a very special way to celebrate the coming Christmas holidays. PACE's last meeting in 2005 ended with a suggestion to denounce communism during the next session in January 2006. The draft resolution on the matter virtually equates communism with Nazism. The idea of the draft resolution sprang from Swedish lawmaker Goran Lindblad.
The very idea to condemn communism is not new. The PACE has repeatedly tried to approve such a resolution: the latest attempt took place in September of the current year. Eastern Germany and several other countries of the former socialist block continue to conduct legal proceedings against their erstwhile communist leaders. At the same time, the governments of Eastern European countries continue to expose more secret documents, which prove, as they believe, that the communist ideology can be equated with Nazi regime.
Pravda.Ru asked State Duma deputies Viktor Alksnis and Aleksei Ostrovskoy, as well as scientist of politics Sergei Markov to comment PACE's draft resolution on communism.
"Another attempt of the PACE to pass the communism-condemning resolution seemed quite disturbing to me," Viktor Alksnis said. "Condemning communism is almost the same as denouncing Islam or Christianity. Communism is a whole outlook. This decision shows that the countries of Central and Eastern Europe wish to strike 40 years out of their history. As for Western Europe, such a resolution seems to be a part of the whole strategy to oust Russia from Europe. As soon as they condemn communism, the countries of the Baltic region, Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic will set their financial claims against Russia. The draft resolution covers global geopolitical goals to weaken Russia's influence," the deputy said.
Aleksei Ostrovsky, a member of the State Duma Committee for International Affairs, a PACE deputy, supports the resolution. "This is one of the few occurrences, when I support the PACE resolution. Communism is an extremely harmful ideology. This is a dream that cannot be fulfilled. Tens of millions of people died because of this dream. This ideology corrupts the society. That is why I do not see any anti-Russian agenda in the resolution. I think that Russian PACE members must vote for it. First and foremost, the resolution is meant for the countries of Central and Eastern Europe. Former communists came to power in almost all countries of the "new Europe" in the 1990s. Western politicians did not want the past to repeat again. It is highly important for Europe to unite now and alienate itself from rightist and leftist political wings," the deputy said.
Sergei Markov, the Director of the Political Research Center, believes that the PACE resolution has nothing to do with communism. "Communism is not a threat to the world nowadays. This cannot be said about Islamism or fascism, though. This is an explicit demonstration of anti-Russian sentiments. It is an absolutely Russophobic document. Western and Eastern Europe have common goals in their pressure on Russia. They want to make Russia pay compensations and become the source of cheap energy resources. In addition, they want to preserve anti-Russian regimes outside Russia, along its borders.
A spokesperson for the Polish embassy in Moscow said that PACE's draft resolution on communism means that communism brought too much trouble to the world. "Communists destroyed millions of people in many countries. It would therefore be correct to compare them with Nazis. There is no anti-Russian hidden motive at this point: Russia suffered from the communist regime itself. Russia is a European country. It is much closer to Poland and France than to any Muslim country, India or China. Being a European country, it needs to follow Europe's example and recognize communism a criminal ideology," an official said. Vadim Trukhachev