The Russian Foreign Ministry called on Germany to pay compensation to the survivors of the Siege of Leningrad

As noted in the diplomatic service, payments should be made to absolutely everyone who suffered from the fascist blockade, regardless of nationality. Now such payments are made to Jews through the International Jewish Conference. The ministry believes that such a position does not correspond to the principles of justice and equality.

“Taking into account the historical recognition of the unique in degree of cruelty and indiscriminate nature of the Leningrad blockade, all blockade victims should be singled out as a separate category of victims of Nazism without discrimination on the basis of nationality”, - the ministry said in a statement. The ministry added that this request was made on the basis of numerous appeals received from the Russians who survived the blockade.

Attempts to obtain compensation for the residents of St. Petersburg were carried out earlier, but each time the Russian Foreign Ministry was denied such compensation to the Russians, the ministry added. Germany's position on this matter is as follows: the country would not want to create a precedent in which other countries, affected by the actions of the fascist invaders, would request appropriate compensation. The Russian Foreign Ministry considers this argumentation untenable. As an example, the diplomatic service cited payments to former Soviet prisoners of war, which Germany initially did not want to carry out, fearing an "undesirable precedent", but after, when these payments were made, they were not followed by similar claims from other countries.

At the same time, in 2019, Germany, in recognition of its responsibility for the blockade of Leningrad, allocated 12 million euros to modernize the Hospital for war veterans in St. Petersburg. The supplies of equipment for this hospital began in the middle of last year. However, the Russian Foreign Ministry does not believe that this gesture can remove the issue of compensation from the agenda, since not all of the 123,000 currently living survivors of the Siege of Leningrad have remained in St. Petersburg and can use the services of the hospital.

The day of the liberation of Leningrad from the Nazi blockade in Russia is celebrated every year on January 27.