Russia's Putin Likens U.S. Policy to 'Third Reich'

I assumed this would have been discussed or noticed already, but couldn't find it yet. I read this a few days ago at the airport:

Russian President Vladimir Putin launched a thinly veiled attack on the United States, comparing American foreign policy to the "Third Reich” in a speech on Wednesday.

Putin’s comments were the latest in a series of Russian criticisms of the U.S. on Iraq, missile defense and NATO expansion, as the Russian leader maintains that America is striving to single-handedly dominate world affairs, the International Herald Tribune reported.

Putin delivered the speech from a podium in front of Lenin’s Mausoleum on Red Square as he marked Victory Day, the 62nd anniversary of the defeat of Nazi Germany.

"We do not have the right to forget the causes of any war, which must be sought in the mistakes and errors of peacetime,” he declared.

Source

I don't think he has a point, but it's good to see this happening. The US government has done enough harm to the world and they'd better think twice before going at war with Iran.

I hardly think Mr. Putin has any right to compare US policy to that of the Third Reich considering what he and his government does. The way it treats the Baltic States and other Eastern European nations is quite shocking, regularly cutting off gas and oil supplies over disputes that have nothing to do with fuel. Frankly, Russia is bullying those nations and using its natural resources to threaten them. Not to mention the mysterious deaths of Alexander Litvinenko and Anna Anna Politkovskaya (two people who were murdered and were opposed to Putin's government) as well as the suppression of legal opposition parties within Russia itself (currently there's all this fuss over the Moscow authorities forbidding members of opposition parties flying out to Germany to join protests at the upcoming G8 summit).

The United States, whilst far from perfect, shouldn't take advice from a nation who so blatantly flouts democracy and has a very dubious foreign policy record itself (both past and present).

And to add fuel to the fire, apparently Putin has condemned the treatment of ethnic Russians inside Estonia over the recent row moving the Soviet war memorial. (Source: BBC)

Hitler did the very same thing before marching into the Sudetenland in 1938, claiming that ethnic Germans living in Czechoslovakia were being persecuted by the Czech government. So, remind me, whose foreign policy is like that of the Third Reich?

[edit on 18/5/07 by Ste2652]

Seeing how Europe and US has become accustomed to likening Putin's administration to Big Bad Soviet Imperialists or whatever the exact "metaphor" is these days, likining US foreign policy to that of Hitler isn't much of a stretch in comparison. US/Europe is barking baseless and dumbfounded accusations at Putin - Putin replies by barking the same baseless and dumbfounded accusation back at them. It's a war of words, and frankly that's much better than a Cold War.

By the way- the last time Russia had been directly militarily involved in a foreign conflict was in the 80's. Since then US has been directly involved in no less than 5 conflicts, and outright invaded 2 sovereignties. Russia might be pressuring its somewhat arrogant neighbors through economic means, but I think that is a far way from military invasion. So would you rather have you gas shut off, or experience "Shock and Awe" campaign from a first-person perspective?


Russia is in no position to lecture anyone. But then it wasn't the one that started. As soon as Putin came to power the US began lecturing Russia on every decision it makes. Now Putin is simply firing back.

Actually the most accurate impression of the third reich today are the Putins "youth organizations" that are politically brainwashing Russian youth to a hatred against anything that threatens the current Kreml residents. The Organisations give out military training and their members are given a special treatment in the military. Army officers are afraid of these "Putinist" units. These same groups were responsible of sieging the Estonian embassy in Moscow, some claimed that these organisations were behind the riots in Tallin too.

To me this is terrifyingly similar to the creation of the SA/SS and Hitlerjugend during the late '30s.

Ps. I tought that russia is still holding troops in Georgia? Wouldn't that count as a foreign conflict?

[edit on 18-5-2007 by northwolf]

Officially the troops which still remain in Georgia are "peacekeepers", although there are fewer and fewer of them year to year. The conflict did not involve "direct" Russian interference- but of course that is disputed. Plus, since Georgia's northern borders are still under dispute, it is unclear if Russian troops are actually present on the Georgian territory,

Putin is ex-KGB and has dirty hands too. Russia is full of mafia and crime which shows you how "good" their president is. If he linked something to something else it means absolutely nothing, maybe shows he has IQ above 70.

This is same as when Vatican is against AIDS, or when UN condemns violence. Yet they all contribute to it and profit from it.

Remember Anna Politkovskaya or Human Rights Violations in Chechnya:

"Because of the six years long conflict, Chechnya experiences a large scale humanitarian disaster: at least 15% of its population has been exterminated. Torture, extra-judicial killings, death squads terrorizing the population are an every day reality, and now refugees are also forced back to the war zones."

This is reality. He keeps people in fear as all other dictators.

[edit on 18-5-2007 by 64738]

Pot, meet kettle.

Someone might want to tell ol' Vladimir to go look in a mirror. Russian dealings in Eastern Europe and in some of the old Soviet era satellite states have been far from benign in recent years. I can understand his concerns over US foreign policy, but he needs to get his own house in order as well. And considering his KGB background, he's hardly one to talk.

Here is the really sad part:

Every single time a post comes up mentioning Putin, nearly everyone says the same damn things over and over and over and over....

-Putin is KGB omgnfwwtfFTW!@@##!@

-Putin wants to bring back USSR

-Russia = Mafia

-Remember the Chechnya

This either shows that most people have nothing to say, but they want to say something anyway to show their disapproval of Putin, or that they really believe either of these things play any role in the discussion of the post. If the later is true, it actually makes it even sadder.


What does KGB have to do with anything regarding Putin's personality, his ability to govern, or Russia's foreign and domestic policies? Being a former head of the KGB only shows that Putin has leadership experience, has a detailed knowledge of political affairs, and has already gone through a through background and personality check process to make sure he is a true patriot of the nation, and not a sell-out political prostitute selling the country bit by bit ala Yeltsin and Yuschenko.

To you KGB may bring back memories of Cold War era Bond movies, fancy Cold War rumors, and whatever else brainwashing people were subjected to outside the curtain. I am afraid this cognitive prejudice will yeild little in the way of conrete ideas.

And Russia may be run by mafia sponsored and backed by the oligarchs. But how is that any different from how the U.S. is run by the capitalist elite?


The issue here is that Putin is simply giving Bush the taste of his own medicine. US has been barking out accusations at Russia during the last 5 years, ignoring its own obvious shortcomings in the realm of global humanitarianism and bringing about of world peace. If US can blame Russia and point fingers, why can't Russia do the same? If someone has any realistic comprehension regarding foreign global politics, they know there isn't really much to this war of words- it is aimed at making a political point, and in the process tragically brainwashes certain people to think that what is being said is true and is the foreshadowing of Soviet world domination.

[edit on 18-5-2007 by maloy]

I think, maloy, people are simply remarking on the irony of Putin criticising Bush over a 'Third Reich'-style foreign policy when he himself has much to answer for too. As I said, the United States isn't perfect (none of the posters have said that the US is perfect) but Russia can hardly claim the moral high ground either.

I'd like to know where NewsMax got their story from? Perhap's it's an easily identifiable Source, but I'd like to see it.
Pretty-strong words from a secondary dictator.
The USA, under Mr President Ronald Reagan worked hard to end the cold war and intensify public confidence to seriously update and grow the American military might -- all to end the cold war and reduce mass wmd.

If Putnik said such things about the US, he's only inviting a clash of the titans in the economic field of battle. Which these days or soon the USA may have trouble finding a victory. But I hope they do.

Dallas

Originally posted by Dallas
The USA, under Mr President Ronald Reagan worked hard to end the cold war and intensify public confidence to seriously update and grow the American military might -- all to end the cold war and reduce mass wmd.

Yeah....

Is this what most Americans truly believe? That superhero Saint Reagan ended the Cold War all by himself and carried the mighty US to the top of Olympus to oversee the world all by itself? Please....

US did not end the Cold War, and especially not Reagan. As much as you like to belive that you defeated the Soviet Union in the Cold War, you did not. Reagan did not bring about the nuclear arms treaties. He did not knock down the Belin wall. He did not help anyone in Eastern Europe to gain their independence.

Gorbachev, Kravchuk, and several more leading Soviet politicians were responsible for putting an end to Soviet Union. It had little to do with Cold War or especially with Reagan. It was about nationalistic efforts and interests of individual socialist republics, and a growing ethnical divide among USSR member nations as well as economic downfall.

People like Gorbachev and Kravchuk engineered the start of the Soviet collapse long before Reagan got involved. They started it, but because they did not foresee the level of potential ethnical and nationalist tensions they couldn't stop it from spiraling out of control. US and Reagan were simply witnesses to a phenomenon of a degenerating Soviet empire. Reagan was lucky to get much of the praise for it in the US, but he was a bystander nothing more.

The plans which certain Soviet politicians drew up in the 80's were to turn USSR into something like what China is today. A single-party controlled government, but a free and semi-capitalist economy. When Gorbachev got at the helm, he engineered a way to carry out these plans, starting with perestroika. By the late 80's though everything spiraled out of his control, and the USSR was no more. The US was probably as surprised about the result as anyone else. The arms treaties, the status of socialist republics "self-determination", the Berlin Wall, perestroika- was all planned out and carried out by disenchanted Soviet politicians.

All Reagan did was talk the talk. It just so happened that this was enough to convince many Americans he was their savior. In such, he was a msterful con-man. Maybe he should have claimed he invented the internet and put an end to WWII. I mean ending the Cold War is a great task for only one man. A man who was half a world away waving at TV cameras and sabre rattling, not realizing meanwhile that USSR was officially being "bought out" by its leaders.

[edit on 19-5-2007 by maloy]

Originally posted by maloy

Originally posted by Dallas
The USA, under Mr President Ronald Reagan worked hard to end the cold war and intensify public confidence to seriously update and grow the American military might -- all to end the cold war and reduce mass wmd.

Yeah....

Is this what most Americans truly believe? That superhero Saint Reagan ended the Cold War all by himself and carried the mighty US to the top of Olympus to oversee the world all by itself? Please....

US did not end the Cold War, and especially not Reagan. As much as you like to belive that you defeated the Soviet Union in the Cold War, you did not. Reagan did not bring about the nuclear arms treaties. He did not knock down the Belin wall. He did not help anyone in Eastern Europe to gain their independence.

Gorbachev, Kravchuk, and several more leading Soviet politicians were responsible for putting an end to Soviet Union. It had little to do with Cold War or especially with Reagan. It was about nationalistic efforts and interests of individual socialist republics, and a growing ethnical divide among USSR member nations as well as economic downfall.

People like Gorbachev and Kravchuk engineered the start of the Soviet collapse long before Reagan got involved. They started it, but because they did not foresee the level of potential ethnical and nationalist tensions they couldn't stop it from spiraling out of control. US and Reagan were simply witnesses to a phenomenon of a degenerating Soviet empire. Reagan was lucky to get much of the praise for it in the US, but he was a bystander nothing more.

The plans which certain Soviet politicians drew up in the 80's were to turn USSR into something like what China is today. A single-party controlled government, but a free and semi-capitalist economy. When Gorbachev got at the helm, he engineered a way to carry out these plans, starting with perestroika. By the late 80's though everything spiraled out of his control, and the USSR was no more. The US was probably as surprised about the result as anyone else. The arms treaties, the status of socialist republics "self-determination", the Berlin Wall, perestroika- was all planned out and carried out by disenchanted Soviet politicians.

All Reagan did was talk the talk. It just so happened that this was enough to convince many Americans he was their savior. In such, he was a msterful con-man. Maybe he should have claimed he invented the internet and put an end to WWII. I mean ending the Cold War is a great task for only one man. A man who was half a world away waving at TV cameras and sabre rattling, not realizing meanwhile that USSR was officially being "bought out" by its leaders.

[edit on 19-5-2007 by maloy]

_________________

Yuk.

Hey maloy, not much write you wrote about. The change of the USSR policies began with Andropov. Whop past the torch to Gorby, who wrote a book called Perstoika(sp?). President Reagan started Star Wars aka STI.

President Reagan did not and would not back down from Gorby's threat USSR would not talk SALT1 if STI wasn't abandoned. President Regan brought his case on live TV to Americans showing charts of the conventional and I thing Nuclear advantage the USSR had above and beyond the USA. He further asked that every American call there rep or Senator to tell him/her to approve Reagan's new military budget (huge) to rebuild the US Military. They (Americans) did and it was approved.

Anyway, my point is Mr Reagan knew the American military deficiencies and did something about it. Rest his Soul. That and the Berlin wall, ie
"Mr Gorbachev tear down this wall" set something in motion that I feel, could not be stopped. Plus the 200 Million USSR stabilization 'grant' (seasonly).

Dallas

Enh...that's giving Bush way, way too much credit. He's evil, but incompetent, compared to Hitler, who was evil and marginally competent.

Originally posted by Mdv2

I don't think he has a point, but it's good to see this happening. The US government has done enough harm to the world and they'd better think twice before going at war with Iran.

I think we have more of a reason to invade Iran that we did Vietnam. Actually, we do. But we don't need to worry about that, because most of America (including Congress) are caught up in an anti-war movement. Even though if we left where we are to come home, horrible things would happen.

Originally posted by Ste2652
I hardly think Mr. Putin has any right to compare US policy to that of the Third Reich considering what he and his government does. The way it treats the Baltic States and other Eastern European nations is quite shocking, regularly cutting off gas and oil supplies over disputes that have nothing to do with fuel.

I think you have a good point, I'm sic of people like this talking before they look in their back yard.
On the other hand when your are talking about eastern europian nations besides belarus most of the other eastern europian nations have nothing to do with russia,it's simple he cuts the gas we cut air space for rusian cargo and comercial flying airlines, they depend on us we depend on russia for gas

Frankly, Russia is bullying those nations and using its natural resources to threaten them.

As long as I know this is not happening, I live in east-central europe, there is the issue with belarus and lituania but there is a long story to it.
There has never been a gas cut out from russia.

Russia on the inside is a heaven for coruption with corupt political leaders
with ganster tipe of goverment, I do think russian leaders have no right to accuse others when they are doing bad stuff them selfs, but what I do think is that they do have the right to be worried about that missle sistem that is being placed near them, bush will only create hostility by doing this, russia is a weak as a democratc country, but I'm sure we don't want a russia in it's previos years, better the russia that is now than what use to be, bush only likes to spark trouble, I think this is a dumb move by bush.





[edit on 18/5/07 by Ste2652]