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“No, Russia has no territorial claims on its neighbors,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on June 22.
In this way, D. Peskov answered the question about Putin’s statement made in the new documentary “Russia. The Kremlin. Putin “said some republics withdrew” after receiving gifts “during the collapse of the Soviet Union.
In a documentary shown on June 21, Putin does not specify which of the 14 republics he “appropriated”, as he called himself, “the traditional historical territories of Russia”, and emphasized that “after the creation of the Union Soviet, the right to withdraw from the Union was written. ” agreement, but the withdrawal procedure is not detailed. “
Putin also said that Moscow’s illegal annexation of the Crimean peninsula in Ukraine in 2014 “was a democratic choice for the people of the peninsula.”
“Crimea has always been ours. Even from a legal point of view,” Putin said.
The annexation of Crimea in February-March 2014 and support for pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine (a conflict that killed more than 13,000 people and opposed Moscow and Kiev) have scared other former Soviet republics, especially Belarus and Kazakhstan, with long borders with Russia. and the large Russian ethnic community that lives there, writes rferl.org.
“Putin spoke of past systemic constitutional errors that failed to predict certain situations and events that had a negative impact on our country,” Peskov said, although he declined to comment on Putin’s phrase about “gifts.”
Opposition to World War II narratives continues to deepen
The Soviet victory over Nazi Germany, won 75 years ago, is personally important to President Vladimir Putin, who used the USSR’s military triumph in 1945 to fuel national pride in Russia today.
Putin will lead a major military parade on Moscow’s Red Square on Wednesday, which was supposed to traditionally take place for Russia on May 9 to celebrate Victory Day, but was postponed due to a coronavirus pandemic.
Russia’s relations with Europe have faltered over Moscow’s role in the wars in Syria and Ukraine, and accusations of political interference and historical revisionism are deepening disagreements.
A few months before the pandemic began, Putin spoke every time about the Great Patriotic War, teaching a narrative that was very different from the prevailing view in Europe.
He developed the theme of World War II through informal meetings with the leaders of the former Soviet republics, at his annual press conference, through meetings with businessmen, and addressing generals.
“We have a duty to defend the truth about victory. If we don’t, what will we tell our children if the lie spreads like a plague around the world? Putin said in a statement to parliament in January.
The president says he reads a lot about the history of that period, and recently published a long article in English accusing the West of “vile” attempts to offend Russia by rewriting the history of World War II.
Strict statements
“For Putin, this issue is the basis of his national idea of the rebirth of Russia, of Russia as a powerful state, of the elevation of the country,” said historian Vitaly Dymarski.
By promoting the memory of World War II, the president also has an opportunity to mobilize Russians around a unifying national idea, he added.
Moscow has exchanged strong diplomatic statements with the European Union and the leaders of former communist countries, including Poland and Ukraine, who are highly critical of Russia.
In December Putin condemned Warsaw’s “incredible cynicism” and accused Poland of massacre of Jews in 1945 and of controversial agreements with Adolf Hitler before war broke out.
Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, for his part, dismissed the comments as “nonsense” and his country boycotted this year’s Holocaust remembrance ceremony in Israel because of Putin’s participation.
The Russian president also condemned a resolution passed by the European Parliament in September condemning the 1939 split between Poland and other Eastern European countries between the Soviet Union and Germany.
Putin criticized the statement, saying it was an attempt to equate the USSR with Nazi Germany.
In 1939, the Soviet Union and Germany entered into a non-aggression pact, the so-called Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, whose secret protocols defined the areas of influence of both parties. This treaty is considered one of the main factors that led to World War II, which began with the German and Soviet attack on Poland.
But Moscow says an agreement with Berlin was necessary because Europe had left the Soviet Union alone to halt Germany’s ambitions by signing the Munich Agreement in 1938, which opened the hands of the Nazis to annex the western part of Czechoslovakia.
Politics, not history
Russia also blames the West for playing down its role in the war, which killed 27 million people. Citizens of the Soviet Union, and at the same time exaggerate the contribution of the United States and Great Britain.
Moscow believes that the Allied landing in Normandy in June 1944 was only one of the episodes that led to the defeat of the Nazis, not a decisive event.
Russia said it was “deeply outraged” when the White House failed to mention the Soviet Union among the countries that had defeated Nazi Germany in its official Twitter message in May.
The victory of the Soviet Union in World War II also assured Moscow a leading role in shaping the post-war world order, including the seizure of new territories and a seat on the United Nations Security Council.
The Kremlin is of the opinion that this heritage should “unite the people” against Russia’s opponents, Dymarski said.
“This whole dispute with Europe is not history but politics,” he said.
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