RUSSIA PROTESTS "PROCLAMATION ON CAPTIVE NATIONS"

C O N F I D E N T I A L MOSCOW 002171 SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 07/28/2018 TAGS: PREL PHUM PGOV RS SUBJECT: RUSSIA PROTESTS "PROCLAMATION ON CAPTIVE NATIONS" Classified By: Charge d'Affaires Eric Rubin: Reasons 1.4 (b, d). ¶1. (C) In a July 25 meeting with the Charge, MFA North America Director Igor Neverov raised Russian concerns over the 2008 presidential "Proclamation on Captive Nations Week." Noting that the GOR had not made an issue of the proclamation before, Neverov said that the annual statement had caught the attention of "public figures" this year; specifically, the juxtaposition of "the evils of Soviet communism and Nazi facism." The sentence appeared to equate the two, which Neverov stressed was an anathema for the Russian public and leadership, given the fact that the Soviet Union had been an ally in WW2 against the Nazis, and communist Soviet troops had helped defeat Hitler. The GOR, Neverov clarified, was not attempting to defend Soviet communism -- it was "dead and good riddance" -- and understood the logic of the annual proclamation, but urged that "Cold War rhetoric" be avoided in the future. Charge responded that this was the eighth such proclamation by the President and that no hidden message should be read into the statement. Charge undertook to convey Russian concerns to Washington. ¶2. (U) On July 26, the MFA posted a commentary (MFA translation provided in paragraph 5),sarcastically criticizing the proclamation language as a "novelty" that put an equal sign between Nazi facism and Soviet communism. These were parallels that "don't hold water." The U.S. formulation, the MFA charged, hurt the feelings of Russian veterans, as well as veterans of other countries in the anti-Hitler alliance. The MFA concluded by noting the "surprising tolerance" evidenced by the U.S. toward those in Europe attempting to "whitewash their own Nazi accomplices." ¶3. (SBU) While Russian television has not focused on the issue, the MFA's commentary received wide play in the press. Several national print dailies carried stories extensively quoting the statement. Liberal Kommersant noted that although the MFA maintained that "democratic Russia" had an objective assessment of the Soviet period, the Russian Orthodox Church had recently taken the Russian government to task for not having condemned Bolshevik crimes. However, pro-Kremlin newspapers latched on to the accusations of U.S. Cold War bias, with Izvestiya concluding that "Bush may hate the USSR and its philosophy, but he really overdid it by equating communism to facism." While the right-of-center Nezavisimaya Gazeta acknowledged that talk of Russian bombers to CUBA and the visit of Chavez to Moscow had helped fuel a Cold War atmosphere, the newspaper appeared to side with the MFA in reinforcing the decisive contribution made by the Soviet Union in defeating Nazism. ¶4. (C) Comment: The purity of the Soviet contribution in defeating Nazism is a deeply held belief in Russia, with Russian anger over debates in the former Soviet republics over the role of partisans (who sided with Hitler in opposition to Stalin) and the victims of the famine of the 1930's collectivization drive (whether a Ukrainian genocide, or the widespread devastation of a multiethnic peasant class) likely contributing to the commentary's sarcastic tone. ¶5. (U) Begin GOR Translation: "MFA Information and Press Department Commentary in Connection with the Signing by the U.S. President of the Proclamation on Captive Nations Week, ¶2008. Last week U.S. President George Bush signed a regular proclamation on the theme of "captive nations," with which he annually comes up on the basis of a law adopted way back in the Cold War era. Well, it's business as usual, but this time around one "novelty" has appeared: quite unambiguously the equal sign is put between Nazi fascism and Soviet communism, which are now coupled as a "single evil" of the 20th century. Whatever the U.S. president's attitude towards the period of the Soviet Union and communist ideology, which, by the way, have been given an objective assessment in contemporary democratic Russia, free of ideological stereotypes of the past, these American "parallels" don't hold water, either from the viewpoint of history or in terms of universal human concepts. While condemning the abuse of power and unjustified severity of the Soviet regime's internal policies, we nevertheless can neither treat indifferently attempts to equate Communism and Nazism nor agree that they were inspired by the same ideas and aims. Historical facts incontestably attest that the USSR contributed decisively to the victory over German facism. It was thanks to the Soviet Union and the feat of arms and labor of the Soviet people that Europe was saved from the Nazi occupation and enslavement. The memory of this will always live in the hearts of grateful descendants. The phrase under which the U.S. president signed cannot but hurt the hearts of not only the Russian participants of that war, but also we think of the veterans of the other countries of the anti-Hitler coalition, including American, who should to should fought for the common victory and shed their blood on the battlefields in the name of freedom and the future. By the way, one cannot but see that such assessments simply feed the efforts of those, who for political and selfish ends are striving to falsify the facts and rewrite history. All this takes place against the backdrop of the surprising tolerance being show in the United States toward those who in a number of European countries are trying to whitewash "their own" Nazi accomplices. It is sad that in the new realities of the 21st century the old Cold War for people's minds is continuing, with the use of dubious methods at that. This is the wrong tack." End MFA Translation RUBIN