Lecturer at top Moscow university says gas chambers not for killing and six million dead Jews is “a fiction”

A lecturer on international relations at a prestigious Moscow university denied that Nazi gas chambers were used to kill people and said that six million dead Jews was “a fiction”.

Prof. Vladimir Matveyev is expected to face a charge of Holocaust denial, which is illegal in Russia.

Speaking online to teachers from the St. Petersburg region on Holocaust Remembrance Day, Prof. Matveyev, a lecturer at the Russian Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (RANEPA), said: “No gas chambers were found to kill people in concentration camps,” and claimed that the “gas was used by the Germans for disinfection.” He also stated: “Six million dead Jews are a fiction.”

In a statement issued on the same day, the state-owned RANEPA said that it “cannot accept” the lies told by Prof. Matveyev and said that he was not representing the University when he made the remarks but was participating “outside his professional duties.”

St. Petersburg Rabbi Menachem Mendel Pevzner, of the Federation of Jewish Communities, said that his office was pressing charges against Prof. Matveyev for hate speech and Holocaust denial, which are illegal in Russia.

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