A vote, by members of the OSCE (Organisation For Security And Co-operation In Europe), that was overwhelmingly in favour of a remembrance day to commemorate the victims of Nazism and Stalinism prompted representatives from Moscow to walk out. The Russian delegation boycotted the vote after earlier attempts to have it scrapped had failed.
The resolution, to mark two decades since the Iron Curtain was pulled down, states that Hitler’s Germany and Stalin’s Soviet Union brought genocide and crimes against humanity to Europe, and equates the roles of the two sides in starting the Second World War. August 23rd, the proposed day of remembrance, identifies the signing of the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, which sliced up Eastern Europe between the two powers (though strictly speaking the pact wasn’t actually autographed until the 24th). Many Russians continue to revere Stalin, but only 8 out of 385 OSCE delegates shared such views enough to vote against the proposition.
