Nazi-connected companies’ products should be identified - nationalist MP
The head of the Motherland party has drafted a bill ordering special markings on all ads from companies that collaborated with Nazis during WWII, claiming many Russians would stop using the products once aware of their makers’ history.
“I’m sure there will be quite a lot of people among our citizens who would refuse to buy such products. If the BMW company produced aircraft that were bombing our cities, our citizens must know this and there is nothing in this to be shy about,” Aleksey Zhuravlev stated in an interview with Izvestia daily.
He explained that his bill ordered some amount of space or air time dedicated to information about a producer’s collaboration with the Nazi regime. This was at least three seconds of time in one radio ad, five seconds and at least 7 percent of screen space in a TV ad. At least 10 percent of space in all other types of advertising media.
Zhuravlev emphasized that he doesn’t want to introduce any bans, but only seeks that fuller information be presented to potential customers. He also noted that it was important to remind people about history in order to prevent distortion and purposeful rewriting of facts that could harm Russia’s national interests.
The MP said he had chosen June 22 as the date to draft this bill on purpose as this was the date when Nazi Germany attacked Soviet Union in 1941 and it is still marked in Russia as the Day of Memory and Mourning.
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Aleksey Zhuravlev sits in the lower house on the ticket of the centrist conservatives United Russia, but heads the nationalist Rodina (Motherland) party. This is because Rodina was re-registered under new rules already after the parliamentary elections of 2011.
The lawmaker is known for several radical suggestions, including a proposal to issue visa bans on foreigners who attack Russia on social networks and a request to the Education and Defense Ministries to return military education to secondary schools.
Zhuravlev is also renowned for cooperation with the pro-gun lobby – last year he and a group of allies sought to broaden the legal definition of self-defense in order justify use of firearms for defense of one’s home.
