Now Putin says the West is like Hitler!
Russian leader defends his aggressive foreign policy
VLADIMIR Putin defiantly compared Western powers with Hitler yesterday as he defended his aggressive foreign policy.
In a belligerent and provocative state - of- the- nation address, the Russian president accused the West of ‘trying to build a new Iron Curtain’. He claimed Russia was asserting its ‘sovereignty and national pride’ over its dealings with neighbouring Ukraine – and said his country’s survival depended on it.
Claiming the West wanted to see a Yugoslav- style ‘collapse and dismemberment’ of Russia, he said: This has not happened. We did not allow it.
‘Hitler also failed when, with his hateful ideas, he was going to destroy Russia, throw us back behind the Urals. Everyone should remember how it ended.’
The comparison with the Nazi leader may have been a reference to David Cameron’s own attempt to compare Mr Putin with Hitler earlier this year. They also follow comments by Prince Charles in May, in which he made comparisons between Hitler and the Russian leader while visiting Second World War veterans in Canada – sparking a furious reaction from the Kremlin.
Yesterday Mr Putin used his address to justify Russia’s dealings with Ukraine and the annexation of Crimea – which he described as ‘our Temple Mount’, a reference to the holy site in Jerusalem sacred to both Jews and Muslims.
More than 4,300 people have been killed in the conflict with separatists in eastern Ukraine, which the West and the Ukrainian government say is fuelled by Russian arms and money.
But Mr Putin insisted that Russia was merely defending its own existence from foreign aggressors and warned: ‘No one will succeed in defeating Russia militarily.’
He added: ‘If for a number of European countries national pride is a longforgotten term and sovereignty is too much of a luxury, for Russia real state sovereignty is an absolutely indispensable condition of its existence.
‘I want to stress: either we will be sovereign or we will dissolve in the world. And, of course, other nations must understand this as well.’ Mr Putin then raised the spectre of a new Cold War, saying: ‘We will stand up for the diversity of the world.
‘We will deliver truth to people abroad... And we will do this even in those cases when governments of some countries are trying to build around Russia something next to a new Iron Curtain.’
Despite the Kremlin’s stand- off with the West over Ukraine, Mr Putin said Russia would not be drawn into a costly arms race.
He said: ‘Our army is modern and battle-worthy. As they say now, it is polite but menacing. We have quite enough power, will and courage to defend our freedom.’
Striking a more liberal note in the speech, he also announced measures to spur the flagging economy, which has been hit by tough Western sanctions over Russia’s actions in Ukraine and is forecast to go into recession next year.
He suggested a series of measures including the temporary lifting of tax checks for companies with a clean record and no taxation on offshore money returning to Russia.