Russia’s military campaign in Ukraine is illegal, given the fact that the authorities did not consult the population when sending troops to the neighboring country, Russian Yakov Dzhugashvili, Stalin’s great-grandson, said in an interview with EFE on Friday, EFE reports. Agerpres.

“In order to participate in this war, the armed forces had to be sent to the battlefield by the state authorities of Russia under the instructions and on behalf of the Russian people,” said the successor of the Soviet dictator.

In this regard, he stated that neither the State Duma nor the Federation Council, the two houses of the Russian parliament, issued even “a single law or legal norm that would hint at war, Ukraine or a special operation.”

Dzhugashvili, who has the same first and last name as Stalin’s eldest son, emphasized that it was important that “the man who plays (President Vladimir) Putin announced on television” about the start of a “special military operation” (SVO ) on February 24. 2022 year.

“There is no document on the president’s website about the start of the SVO. Thus, the Russian people did not send armed forces to war in Ukraine either directly or through their state power,” he said.

“They want to avoid responsibility provided by the Criminal Code”

In his opinion, “in this way, officials want to avoid everything that could associate them with a special operation.”

“Why? I have only one answer. They want to avoid responsibility under Article 353 of the Criminal Code (planning, preparing, waging or waging an aggressive war),” he said.

Stalin’s great-grandson, who is now in Moscow, noted that this article carries a penalty of up to 20 years in prison.

Referring to the annexation of the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea, he recalled that on March 1, 2014, the Federation Council (Russian Senate) did not hesitate to specify where and why it was sending troops.

“In the document dated February 22, 2022 (the Senate) did not gather courage. why Because in 2014 Russia’s actions were legal, but in 2022 they are not,” he insisted.

And Westerners are “hiding” the truth, accuses Stalin’s successor

In addition, Yakov Dzhugashvili accused Western politicians and the media, interested in Russia’s defeat in the war, of covering up the fact that the Russian people did not allow their army to intervene militarily in Ukraine.

“This is being hidden from the Russian people and the world in order to drag out this fratricidal war as long as possible,” Stalin’s great-grandson claims.

As for his great-grandfather, Dzhugashvili assured that the authorities use the name of Stalin, the Soviet Union and the Great Patriotic War (1941-1945), the Soviet episode of the Second World War, for propaganda purposes.

According to Dzhugashvili, the goal is to “convince the Russian people that the special operation in Ukraine is as fair as the Great Patriotic War.”

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