MOSCOW, June 8 (RAPSI) – The lower house of Russian parliament passed a draft law banning the public identification of the role of the USSR and Nazi Germany in World War II in the second reading on Tuesday, according to a statement published on the State Duma’s official website.

The Amendments to a federal law of 1995 on perpetuating the victory of the Soviet people in the Great Patriotic War are aimed at establishing a ban on public identification of the goals, decisions and actions of the leadership of the USSR and the national military command and personnel with the goals, decisions and actions of the leadership of Nazi Germany and Axis countries military command and personnel.

The authors of the initiative are State Duma lawmakers Elena Yampolskaya and Alexander Zhukov, as well as Senator Alexey Pushkov.

The bill is aimed at preserving the memory of the defenders of the Fatherland, ensuring legal protection of historical truth, the significance of the heroic deed of the people in defending the Fatherland, the parliamentarians point out. 

Lawmakers deem it unacceptable to distort historical facts and belittle the role of the Soviet people in the victory over fascism. The changes proposed by the bill will become an effective and timely form of defending the decisions of the International Military Tribunal in Nuremberg, Chair of the State Duma’s Defense Committee, Colonel General Vladimir Shamanov said earlier.