Nov. 20 was the 75th anniversary of the convening of the Nazi war crimes trial in Nuremberg after World War II. A conference on the lessons learned opened in Moscow in observance of this solemn occasion. Both Russian President Vladimir Putin and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov addressed the conference on its first day.
“I am certain that the forum’s theme matters to you not only from a professional standpoint, but also in terms of the sense of personal responsibility for preserving the historical truth about World War II,” Putin told the conference participants, reports the Kremlin transcript. “You understand the significance of the Nuremberg verdicts, and the norms and principles these trials helped devise for responding to today’s challenges and threats.”
“We constantly refer to the lessons of the Nuremberg Trials; we understand their importance for defending the truths of historical memory, for making a well-founded and solid case against deliberate distortions and falsifications of World War II events, especially the shameless and deceitful attempts to rehabilitate and even glorify Nazi criminals and their accessories,” he continued. “I will say even more. It is the duty of the entire international community to safeguard the Nuremberg Trials’ decisions, because they concern the principles that underlie the values of the post-war world order and the norms of international law.”
