Zakharova: Germany pays benefits to former Nazis, but refuses blockade survivors

MOSCOW, June 22 - RIA Novosti. Germany has been paying social benefits to former soldiers of the Third Reich and collaborators for decades, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in an interview with RIA Novosti.

She noted that the German authorities refuse to send compensation to all Leningrad siege survivors and defenders of the city. Berlin makes payments only to Jewish blockade survivors, recognizing them as victims of the Holocaust.

“Such discrimination on the basis of nationality is shocking against the background of social benefits paid by Germany for many decades to former soldiers of the Third Reich who served in SS units and other paramilitary structures recognized as criminal, as well as to foreign collaborators of the Hitler regime, including those directly involved in the siege of Leningrad,” Zakharova emphasized.