Adolf Hitler and Vladimir Putin Photo: Press Portrait Service/EPA
Vladimir Putin Says There Was Nothing Wrong With Soviet Union's Pact With Adolf Hitler's Nazi Germany -- The Telegraph
Russian president says he sees nothing wrong with treaty with Nazi Germany that led to the carve-up of Poland - and blames Britain for destroying any chance of an anti-fascist front
Vladimir Putin has said there was nothing bad about the Nazi-Soviet Pact, the non-aggression treaty which led to the carve-up of Poland at the outset of the Second World War, stating Britain and France destroyed any chance for an anti-fascist front with Munich Agreement.
The Russian president made the comments at a meeting with young historians in Moscow, during which he urged them to examine the lead-up to the war, among other subjects.
The comments are likely to cause dismay in eastern Europe, amid wider debate in Russia about growing attempts to use history as a means of shoring up Mr Putin's rule.
Read more ....
Update: Putin Urges Russian Historians To Combat 'Rewrite' Attempts -- Radio Free Europe
My Comment: I know Putin said this deliberately because he wants to provoke a debate ..... and Russians love to debate and discuss history. But on this issue .... do not even know where to begin commenting.
14 comments:
The Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact prevented war just like the Partitions of Poland prevented Austro-Prussian War and WW1.
Honor among thieves and chimpanzees.
"Honor among thieves and chimpanzees". LOL .... I am going to remember that quote.
You lost me there, Vlad.
I am positive to Putin but not to Stalin
Well, what IS wrong with those? Of all the aspects of Soviet policy at the time, reaching an arrangement with a dangerous neighbour in the absence of any serious alternatives strikes me as one of the least objectionable. It is, at the very least, entirely within the realm of what any normal state would have considered permissible in that environment, not just a totalitarian one.
Perhaps the Poles felt that somewhat left out, when it came to the discussions.
No more left out than the Czech's.
WNU,
".. do not even know where to begin commenting. " He's signaling something, but what?
You are reading my mind James. Putin is always very careful on what he says .... so he said this for a reason, and that is what is troubling me. I need to digest this further .... and I will post what I think he is signalling later. My preliminary guess is that he is worried about Ukraine, and my gut is telling me that he has made the decision that if the Ukraine civil war breaks out again, the Russian military will then become "publicly and forcefully" involved.
Putin isn't "signalling",
He made it very clear, for a overview and summary
http://cluborlov.blogspot.ca/2014/10/putin-to-western-elites-play-time-is.html?m=1
WNU,
I think it involves more than the Ukraine.
James .... Ukraine is the present day focus .... but the link that Jay provided is probably right .... Putin is looking at the big picture, and he is "signalling" that Russia will no longer "play" by Western rules.
WNU,
As for the link, I'll go with #'s 2 and 7, and think they are very important. It's China that Putin is alluding to. It's China that Putin feels is Russia's greatest enemy in the long term, but he will still do business with them (energy agreements etc) and on the diplomatic front will not necessarily side with the US in the coming US/Chinese confrontations. This I believe is his real signal.
As far as the West enters into Putin's calculations, he does not see or fear the West as an enemy. In his mind he tried to work with the West and only got grief for it, so he's only publicly saying what has been privately been said about the West for awhile "You aren't as bad as you think you are and I don't care what you think".
Yup ... Russians have always been afraid of the "yellow peril" .... it is a part of our DNA. But I will still go back to what I said before .... Putin's focus today is on sanctions and on Ukraine, and there is a real fear right now (in both Russia and Ukraine) that the civil war is about to erupt again, but on a far more deadlier and destructive level. Fighting in summer is one thing .... the civilians can run away. But in winter .... everyone is stuck, and the civilian casualty rate would be sky-high.
In March/April I painted the worst case scenario for this crisis .... an all out civil war and a Russian military intervention. I now feel that we are getting closer to that day, and I cannot help but feel that Putin has made a decision to intervene overtly and publicly in the event that this conflict erupts again.
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