Grosu: Moldova to Introduce Penalties for Denying Stalinist Regime Crimes

Parliament Speaker Igor Grosu has announced that Moldova will introduce sanctions for denying the crimes of the Stalinist regime, following an incident in which Communist MPs refused to observe a minute of silence in memory of the victims of the first wave of Stalinist deportations during the plenary session on June 11. Speaking at the opening of the exhibition “State Terror in Soviet Moldova: Scale, Victims and Perpetrators” («Государственный террор в советской Молдове. Масштабы, жертвы и виновные»), held in Great National Assembly Square, the Speaker said the parliamentary incident was deeply unpleasant, deschide.md reports. “I was very disappointed when some elected representatives showed a complete lack of empathy. This affected me greatly. I believe this feeling is shared by everyone who has common sense, good upbringing, and respect for our grandparents,” Grosu stated. In this context, the Parliament Speaker said that in the coming days authorities will draft legislation providing for penalties for individuals who deny the crimes of the Stalinist regime. “This needs to be corrected. And we will do it very quickly. It concerns punishing those who deny the crimes of the Stalinist regime, the famine, the deportations – this must be included in the legislation of the Republic of Moldova,” he said. According to Grosu, holding individuals accountable for such actions is a way of educating those who, in his words, “dare to disregard our collective memory”.