Russia and the West clash at the UN over a resolution against Nazism

The UN General Assembly was the scene this Friday of a new confrontation between Russia and Western countries, this time on a resolution against the glorification of Nazism promoted by Moscow and dozens of states see it as an attempt to justify their invasion of Ukraine.

The text submitted by Russia expresses, among other things, concern over the growth of neo-Nazi groups and for the tributes to those who fought alongside Nazi Germany during the Second World War.

Although the document does not explicitly mention UkraineMoscow has denounced several times the acknowledgement they receive in the country personalities such as the nationalist leader Stepán Bandera, that during the conflict he initially aligned himself with the Germans in demanding independence from the Soviet Union, although he ended up in a Nazi concentration camp.

The Russian President, Vladimir Putin insisted that one of the aims of his military incursion into the neighboring country was to achieve the “denazification” of Ukraine.

For the European Union, With this resolution, Moscow uses the fight against extremism and the condemnation of Nazism as a political tool “which seeks to excuse further violations and abuses of human rights”.

“We strongly condemn the abuse of the anti-Nazism argument and reject Russia’s inaccurate and inappropriate use of the term denazification to justify its inhumane, cruel and unlawful war of aggression against Ukraine,” he added. . said the community delegation today.

Thus, a group of countries presented an eAmendment to add a new paragraph to the resolution in which it is “noted with concern that the Federation of Russia tried to justify its territorial aggression against Ukraine on the basis of the supposed elimination of neo-Nazism, and emphasizes that the use of neo-Nazism as a pretext to justify territorial aggression seriously undermines genuine attempts to fight neo-Nazism.”

Finally, both the text presented by Russia and the amendment promoted by Australia, Japan, Liberia and North Macedonia they came out ahead in the vote which took place in the Third Committee and the text of which will now be submitted to the plenary of the General Assembly.