Address by Mr Roman N.Babushkin, Deputy Head of the Russian Embassy in India, at webinar dedicated to 75th Anniversary of the Nuremberg Tribunal

The history of the Nuremberg Tribunal is part of us today, and we carry on the responsibility to preserve the memory of the WWII. Its conclusions helped to work out norms and principles of the contemporary international relations.

75 years ago, the Nuremberg process attracted the attention of the whole world. High-ranking Nazi officials, who stood behind the mass terror, bloody killings, enslavement and purposeful extermination of entire nations, were brought to justice.

The Tribunal was agreed by the Soviet Union, the USA and Great Britain with the support of 19 countries, and it got the status of People’s Court.

Atrocities against Soviet civilians were elevated to the rank of state policy by the Nazis. The Soviet Union suffered immense, irreparable losses, and among the millions of casualties, the majority was either soldiers who died as prisoners of war or civilians who were fiercely, mercilessly killed. We remember cities that laid in ruins, villages burnt to the ground, brutal mass killings in occupied territories and concentration camps, including elderly people, women and children.

Such crimes have no statute of limitations. The Nuremberg Tribunal pronounced its assessments of those acts, and developed the criteria of a crime against humanity, which defined the very concept of genocide and laid the foundation for the 1948 UN Genocide Convention.

The Nuremberg lessons are still relevant today. We refer to them and understand their importance for defending the truth of historical memory for making a well-founded and solid case against deliberate distortions and falsifications of the WWII events, especially the shameless and deceitful attempts to rehabilitate and even glorify Nazi criminals and their supporters.

Last year, the European Parliament approved the resolution "On the importance of preserving historical memory for the future of Europe", directly accusing the USSR - along with Nazi Germany - of unleashing the WWII. It is regretful that in the Baltic states and in Ukraine, glorification of the members of the Waffen-SS and so-called nationalist heroes, who helped the Nazis, is quite popular.

We inevitably link the current stage of the international relations with the post WWII world order. The principles stipulated in the UN Charter, such as sovereign equality of all nations, resolving international disputes by peaceful means, refraining from the threat or use of force, non-interference in domestic affairs, respect of sovereignty and territorial integrity, etc. should further guide us to prevent conflicts and promote peace based on mutual respect and understanding.

The UN Charter is obviously a key element of the Russian-Indian diplomatic relations, and our consistent support of the central role of the UN is one of the basic reasons why our global and regional approaches are similar or even coinciding.

In this regard, we highly appreciate India’s co-sponsorship of the Russia-proposed UN GA annual resolution against glorification of Nazism, neo-Nazism and other contemporary forms of racism. We were happy to welcome Defence Minister Rajnath Singh in Moscow this June who came to participate in the events dedicated to the Victory in the Great Patriotic War (1941-1945) and to lead the Indian Armed Forces 3-services contingent for the historic Red Square parade.

In conclusion, it’s important to note that it is the duty of the international community to safeguard the Nuremberg Tribunal decisions, because they originated the principles, which planted the values of the post-war world order and the norms of international law. That’s why attempts to forget or undermine them are detrimental to global security.

Significantly, the key factor of the success of the Nuremberg process was that all anti-Hitler coalition allies were like-minded. And if we take the current global challenges, including COVID-19, it would be quite obvious that only combined and collective efforts are able to ensure that we would find a positive response!