VIENNA, May 06. /ITAR-TASS/. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has called on all members of the European Council to take resolute measures to stop ultra-nationalists and abandon double standards.

“Russia and many other countries have long been sounding the alarm over condoning attempts to revive the ‘brown plague',” Lavrov said on Tuesday at a meeting of the Committee of Ministers of the European Council. “Every year at the United Nations General Assembly, a big group of authors proposes a resolution that urges to prevent the heroization of the Nazis and their accomplices. Most of our Western partners have been consecutively refusing to support this resolution, referring to the necessity to respect the freedom of speech. They use the same pretext to block similar resolutions at the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE),” the foreign minister noted.

“Now, after the tragedy in Odessa, after desecration of Jewish cemeteries by fascist mobsters, it is no longer possible to hide behind the protection of the freedom of speech,” the Russian minister stressed. “All members of the European Council must take decisive measures to stop ultra-nationalists. There is no justifying those who condone the ideology and practice of fascism. There can be no justification even if they are politicians enjoying the patronage of enlightened Western democracies. It is high time to abandon double standards,” Lavrov noted.