The message reads, in part:
“The annual commemorative events in memory of Holocaust victims, one of the most tragic and terrible pages in world history, are of great moral significance for Russian society. They are also important for establishing the truth about the events of World War II and about the horrible, barbaric, ruthless and fanatical force the Nazis and their henchmen were, that it was the Soviet soldier who crushed them and that Red Army soldiers and commanders rightfully stand on the pedestal of great liberators who saved the Jewish and other European peoples from extermination.
We will never allow the suffering, torment and endurance of millions of innocent people who were tortured in ghettos and concentration camps, who died of hunger and cold in a besieged Leningrad, who died from death squads in firing ditches and in villages burned to the ground, to be lost to history. We grieve for all victims of these monstrous crimes and know well that such inconceivable, inhuman atrocities have no time limit in our memory. Therefore, our common duty is to resist any attempts to justify or whitewash these executioners and to obscure the facts of mass destruction of people sentenced to death only for their nationality. In standing up for the truth, we are not only protecting the past but we are also promoting a peaceful future.
I thank the organisers of this commemorative evening and everyone who considers it a matter of honour to restore the historical truth, the feats, the dignity and the good name of true heroes.”