A high-ranking diplomat at Russia's Foreign Ministry on Sunday denounced Ukraine's proposed ban on promoting communism and Naziism, saying that by equating the two ideologies, Kiev was violating international law.
The Ukrainian government recently submitted legislation to the parliament "to condemn the communist and Nazi totalitarian regimes in Ukraine, to prohibit their propaganda and declassify the archives of the repressive communist authorities," according to a statement published on the Ukrainian government portal on April 1.
Urging lawmakers to approve the bills, Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk said in the statement: "The government has drafted [the bills]. We appeal to the parliament to adopt these laws and ban at last the communist and Nazi ideology as twins, which are the ideologies against humanity."
The Foreign Ministry's ombudsman for human rights, democracy and rule of law, Konstantin Dolgov, called the proposed legislation "political buffoonery" in a post on Twitter.
Dolgov wrote on Twitter: "Kiev wants to officially equate communism and Nazism, forbidding the promotion of both. This goes against international law."
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