A Russian court in St. Petersburg has found Finland guilty of genocide some 78 years after the siege of Leningrad.
The ruling was made public on Saturday. October 22 and published by news site YLE, came after the case was filed by Russia’s Prosecutor-General Igor Krasnov in September.
Although Finland was not responsible for the siege of the city, the court found that it was complicit as it did Belgium, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands and Norway, and individual Austrian, Latvian, Polish, French and Czech volunteers.
The World War II siege of Leningrad took place between September 1941 and January 1944, and coincided with the Continuation War for Finland. It is considered one of the longest and most destructive sieges in history with more than a million people believed to have died.
The court found that the siege was not only a war crime but also a crime against humanity and genocide of the Soviet people. More specifically it states that the siege of the Soviet city involved the occupying forces, German troops, and their accomplices, were complicit in the crimes.
Russian state news agency TASS reported that the court had heard four people who lived during the siege and 12 experts who had examined top-secret material.
Russia has repeatedly been condemned by Finland over its war in Ukraine and has asked the European Court of Human rights to intervene.
That request and the ongoing support of Ukraine by western European nations appears to be behind the Russian court finding that Finland and others are guilty of ‘genocide’ during the Leningrad siege.
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