Moscow, August 6 (RHC)-- Russia has called for the establishment of an international tribunal to prosecute those responsible for the 1945 atomic bombings of the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

"The bombings of the Japanese cities, which were the only instances in human history when atomic weapons were used, have never been subject to an international tribunal. But we all know, that crimes against humanity have no statute of limitation," Speaker of the Russian Duma Sergey Naryshkin said.

He also took to task the U.S. government for having launched the attacks on the Japanese cities in a flagrant violation of international conventions banning the use of weapons of mass destruction against civilian population.

"The current U.S. authorities want to conceal not the tragedy of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, this would be impossible, but the hypocrisy and cynicism of their leaders of these times," Naryshkin said, adding, "Such behavior casts a shadow on the modern American policies which, of course, retain the legacy of exceptionalist ideology and the position of own infallibility and arrogant force."

Naryshkin said the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki led to the death of a large number of civilians who had absolutely no involvement in the crimes committed at the time by the Japanese army. And he called into question the military justification of the attacks, saying Japan was practically defeated after the Soviet Army's victories in Manchuria.