Russia Plans to Outlaw Comparisons Between the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany

Russia plans to unveil  legislation that would ban public comparisons between the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany by July 2021. 

According to a statement issued by the Kremlin on 23 January, Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered Vyacheslav Volodin, Speaker of the State Duma, to draft by July 1 amendments to Russia’s law cementing Soviet victory over Nazi Germany that would “prohibit publicly equating the role of the U.S.S.R. and Nazi Germany in World War II”. The President’s order must be executed before July 1, 2021, as reported by The Moscow Times.

This legislation would serve as an amendment to the federal law “On immortalizing the Victory of the Soviet people in the Great Patriotic War 1941-1945”.

In recent years, Russia’s leadership has shown renewed interest in the memory of World War II and reviving its praise for Russia’s Soviet past.