"Latvian and Estonian authorities do not attempt to hide their lenient attitude towards attempts to glorify the Nazis and their accomplices, and the European Union ignores the facts," Vladimir Putin told the Executive Committee of the European Jewish Congress on Wednesday.
The Latvian Foreign Ministry expressed "incomprehension" over the accusations and said that "the Latvian government has always sought to avoid any rightist or leftist radical statements in any way connected with extremist ideology."
Putin said that "sanctioned Neo-Nazi rallies are held annually in Latvia on March 16 to mark the anniversary of the establishment of the Latvian Waffen SS," adding that no Nazi war criminal had been punished in Estonia since the country declared its independence following the break up of the Soviet Union in 1991.
The Russian president also pointed to a "strange, almost hypocritical" position of some European agencies toward the Estonian government's decision to move a Soviet WWII monument in the country's capital, Tallinn.
Putin also cited attempts by some political forces in Ukraine to clear the name of "participants in the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists and the Ukrainian Insurgent Army, guilty of massacring Jews in Ukraine."
