MOSCOW, August 2. /TASS/. The July 29 conference of Estonia’s Waffen SS division is a "shameful practice" that contradicts EU Council decisions aimed against racism and xenophobia, the Russian Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday.

"Such gatherings defy the spirit of the EU Council decision 2008/913/JHA dated November 28, on combating certain forms and expressions of racism and xenophobia by means of criminal law, which prohibits incitement of violence or hatred in the form of publicly condoning, denying or grossly trivializing crimes of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes, including holocaust," the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

The ministry is convinced that Tallinn "embarked upon the deliberate promotion of Nazism," which is inadmissible for a modern European nation and a country that holds the rotating EU Council presidency.

Conferences of former members of the 20th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS are held in Estonia on an annual basis. This year, the event took place on July 29 in the northeastern Estonian village of Sinimae.