Putin Defends Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact in Press Conference with Merkel

Putin Defends Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact in Press Conference with Merkel

Russian President Vladimir Putin defended 1939's Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact between the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany as Moscow's response to being isolated and having its peace efforts snubbed by Western nations.

At the close of his Sunday meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Moscow — a day after Russian held grand-scale celebrations of the allied victory in World War II — Putin offered a lengthy defense of the controversial agreement that led to the carving up of Eastern Europe.

"The Soviet Union made massive efforts to lay the groundwork for a collective resistance to Nazism in Germany, made repeated attempts to create an anti-fascist bloc in Europe. All of these attempts failed," Putin told journalists at a joint news conference with Merkel, according to a transcript released by the Kremlin.

"And when the Soviet Union realized that it was being left one-on-one with Hitler's Germany, it took steps to avoid a direct confrontation, and the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact was signed," Putin said.

Once again Putin tries to rewrite history and this time around blames everyone else for forcing Russia into the alliance with Nazi Germany.

Ya know.. I am liking Merkel more and more each day, even more so after her response to Putin's comments -

Merkel offered a diplomatically phrased objection, telling the joint news conference that the "Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact is difficult to understand without considering the additional secret protocol. With that in mind, I think it was wrong, it was done illegally," she said, according to the Kremlin's Russian-language transcript.

The secret protocol, which accompanied what was officially presented as a non-aggression treaty, divided up the territories of Poland, Romania, the Baltic nations and Finland into German and Soviet "spheres of influence." It led to the German and Soviet invasions of Poland, and to the Soviet annexation of the three Baltic states — Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania — and parts of Romania.

Its not surprising Putin failed to address that part of the alliance. I wonder, with Russia's new law about history, if Putin can be prosecuted for denying what occurred? He sang a different tune in 2009 when he said this -

Putin's recent remarks mark a sharp about-face from his comments a few years earlier.

During a visit to Poland in 2009, Putin, then prime minister, denounced the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact as a "collusion to solve one's problems at others' expense."

The Russia government has finally gone completely insane -

"The Soviet Union signed a non-aggression treaty with Germany," he told a meeting with historians. "They say: Oh, this is so bad. But what's so bad about it if the Soviet Union did not want to go to war? What's so bad about it?"

Following his speech, Russia's Culture Minister Vladimir Medinsky in the run-up to this year's Victory Day celebrations praised the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact as a "colossal achievement of Stalin's diplomacy."

Click link for remainder of article..

a reply to: Xcathdra

The Moscow times despite the name is a western owned institution, and are infamous for anti Putin propaganda.

In this case they report watered down out of context kind of information that western dumbed down masses like to consume.

Frankly, it's extraordinary. Arguably the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact was the start of WW2 as it gave the Nazi's a remit to invade Poland and the Soviets to peruse their own land grab in Finland, Poland, Romania and the Baltic States. Hitler and Stalin were both vile war mongers. The rest, as they say, is history.

Putin is a revisionist and the Russian people are being fooled.

a reply to: Xcathdra

I have some doubts about authenticity of "secret protocols" it may be truth or it may the best ever CIA forgery.
I wasn't convinced 100% that it is true after reading a lot of Nuremberg trial documents.
In this video for example you can watch Ribbentrop denying them
youtu.be...

If it was true I don't see the reasons why Ribbentrop wouldn't try to put the blame on Soviets also, but you can always dismiss Ribbentrop as a lier. Still, the history of appearance of "secret protocols" to me seems somewhat suspicious.

a reply to: Xcathdra

Once again Putin tries to rewrite history...

If that's true, he certainly isn't the only one..is he Xcathdra?

You seem to do a pretty good job of trying to skew the facts to manipulate opinion...so, hypocrite is a word that immediately springs to mind.

a reply to: paraphi

Consider for a moment what you people are saying

You are now trying to blame Russia for World War 2

You guys are being revisionists here

RR

originally posted by: Ritter327
You are now trying to blame Russia for World War 3

No. Not sure where you invented that idea from. Go back to the beginning and re-read.

a reply to: Ritter327

I think you meant world war 2.

originally posted by: kitzik
a reply to: Xcathdra

I have some doubts about authenticity of "secret protocols" it may be truth or it may the best ever CIA forgery.
I wasn't convinced 100% that it is true after reading a lot of Nuremberg trial documents.
In this video for example you can watch Ribbentrop denying them
youtu.be...

If it was true I don't see the reasons why Ribbentrop wouldn't try to put the blame on Soviets also, but you can always dismiss Ribbentrop as a lier. Still, the history of appearance of "secret protocols" to me seems somewhat suspicious.

??????
Oh come off it. If there were no secret protocols then Stalin wouldn't have invaded Eastern Poland.

a reply to: kitzik

So Stalin invaded countries based off a CIA forgery, even though the CIA wasn't around back then? And Germany was in on it?

My god the leaps and bounds the Russophiles engage in really knows no bounds, does it?

a reply to: AngryCymraeg

I have said already, I was studying the issue of "secret protocols" extensively and for me it is unresolved mystery and not a fact. You can follow the official western narrative, but let me have some doubts. For me it could be also a posteriori forged document, one fact stands true still, there was never published authentic Russian copy ( the one that supposed to be in Soviet archives). I've seen some difficulties in explaining what really happened even if you hold the "secret protocols" as a truly established fact. The microfilms that appeared in the hands of American lawyer are not 100% evidence for me, especially considering the murky history how they come to the light and how they were propagandized much later. I can tell you that microfilms are now supposedly in Germany , but it is top secret Or they may be linked to German gold in American Fort Nox lol.

a reply to: paraphi

Putin is a revisionist and the Russian people are being fooled.

Some of history could use a bit of revising imo .I guess it's the unknown context that was going on behind the scenes by cut throat ,cut throat leaders at the time . The original plan for the new Israel was to be in the Crimea and supposedly agreed to by the Rothschild's ,Stalin ,and the US president . Hitler may have also been part of the conversation but seeing Germany was going to be the bigger piece of pie the cut throats did their deed .

Britain being in a bad way was probably convinced to give up Palestine for the new project and have the US come to the rescue . Russia did have the largest Jewish population st the time but trying to do the math on it seems a bit confusing when you take the numbers of the Holocaust into it . History as we have been told has a Rat smell to it .imo

The plagues of ancient Egypt, the Black Death, the last ice age and Kim Kardashians fat arse are all Russia's fault too!

It's true... I wrote it on the internet so it must be true!

What will they find to blame Russia for next I wonder? The extinction of the dinosaurs perhaps?

originally posted by: the2ofusr1
a reply to: paraphi

Putin is a revisionist and the Russian people are being fooled.

Some of history could use a bit of revising imo .I guess it's the unknown context that was going on behind the scenes by cut throat ,cut throat leaders at the time . The original plan for the new Israel was to be in the Crimea and supposedly agreed to by the Rothschild's ,Stalin ,and the US president . Hitler may have also been part of the conversation but seeing Germany was going to be the bigger piece of pie the cut throats did their deed .

Britain being in a bad way was probably convinced to give up Palestine for the new project and have the US come to the rescue . Russia did have the largest Jewish population st the time but trying to do the math on it seems a bit confusing when you take the numbers of the Holocaust into it . History as we have been told has a Rat smell to it .imo

Do you have any evidence at all for that... interesting theory? You are aware that the British mandate in Palestine was always going to expire in 1948 aren't you?

a reply to: Britguy

What will the Russophiles and Putinistas find next to blame on everybody else is the more entertaining question

a reply to: kitzik

No, they are not a forgery. Here's a little research for you.

a reply to: AngryCymraeg

You might like to read these links to give you a flavor of what was going on years before the final decision. en.wikipedia.org...

tabletmag.com...

www.jta.org...

a reply to: Shamrock6

As most of what we are taught as history is complete and utter bollocks, manufactured for consumption of the gullible masses, and to hide mass death and barbarism by "our side", I tend to not blindly believe a single thing I am told.

Russophiles and Putinistas? Wow! What sparkling wit, how can anyone argue against such an intellectual goliath!

a reply to: the2ofusr1

The original plan for the new Israel was to be in the Crimea and supposedly agreed to by the Rothschild's ,Stalin ,and the US president .

This plan is known as "Zhemchuzhina plan" among Russian conspiracy theorists.( Polina Zhemchuzhina was a wife of Molotov) Though, I have a lot of doubts that it was in agreement with Stalin. Stalin had another plans for Jewish state/autonomy in the Eastern region of Russia near China border.
I don't think that Stalin wanted to gift Crimea, he was very much opposed to this

Wikipedia source en.wikipedia.org...

Polina Zhemchuzhina befriended Golda Meir, who arrived in Moscow in November 1948 as the first Israeli ambassador to the USSR.[3] Fluent in Yiddish, Zhemchuzhina acted as translator for a diplomatic meeting between her husband, Vyacheslav Molotov, the Soviet Union's foreign minister, and Meir.

She was arrested for treason in December 1948, as she openly supported the idea of granting the region of Crimea to the Jewish community,[4] consequently divorcing with Μolotov .[5] The sentence was five years in a labour camp.[6] She was eventually reunited with her husband by Lavrentiy Beria, after the death of Stalin, in March 1953. Her first question was "How's Stalin?" Upon being told he had died only days before, she fainted.[7]

Happily and lovingly reunited, Polina Zhemchuzhina and her husband lived as unrepentant Stalinists in the Granovsky apartment block near the Kremlin. She died of natural causes in 1970.

a reply to: Britguy

Good for you! It's a rare find on ATS to see somebody who doesn't believe the official story on everything! You, sir, are truly a diamond amongst the rocks.

As evidenced by your need to jump right into the attacks on intellect when somebody dares to utter terms you don't care for. But apparently can't come up with anything to dispel the usage of.

Guess that explains the need to jump straight to offering commentary on a personal level, eh?

Intellectual Goliath indeed