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Foreign Ministry Believes Captive Nations Law Contains Anti-Russian Text

File Photo of Dmitri Medvedev with Barack Hussein Obama II
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MOSCOW. July 15 (Interfax) - Provisions of the Public Law on Captive Nations run counter to positive trends in Russian-American relations, says a Russian Foreign Ministry commentary issued ahead of the Captive Nations Week in the United States.

"The provisions of the law also run counter to positive trends in deepening Russian-U.S. relations. Today when our countries are conducting an intensive and positive dialogue on strategic stability, on settling regional conflicts, on resisting terrorism and coping with new challenges and threats, such a legal background is especially out of tune," the commentary says.

It also notes that given the current nature and dynamics of the Russian-American dialogue "the existence of such an anachronism" can hardly be explained.

"We count on the understanding by our American partners of an objective and simple truth - it is hardly appropriate for our bilateral cooperation to persistently look back at long outdated ideological approaches and labels," the commentary says.

Given the upcoming Captive Nations Week in the United States that will take place on July 17 through 23, the Russian Foreign Ministry draws attention to "the long overdue" need to cancel or fundamentally amend the law on captive nations.

"Even though the presidential statements issued every year in line with the law on the occasion of the Captive Nations Week names other unreliable states instead of the USSR and Russia, the initial anti-Soviet, anti-Russian text of the law has not been formally changed," the Foreign Ministry says.

For instance, the law states that "since 1918 the imperialistic and aggressive policies of Russian communism have resulted in the creation of a vast empire which poses a dire threat to the security of the United States and of all the free people of the world."

"The said document holds this country responsible for enslaving over 20 nations, though many of them (Poland, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia and others) have long become not only independent but full members of such organizations as the United Nations, the European Union and NATO," the commentary says.

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