A new Kremlin target in Vilnius: Anger unexpectedly poured out on a diplomat from a friendly country

Is everything normal there for you? Maria Zakharova, a representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry, addressed Germany in such a harsh tone this week in response to German Ambassador Matthias Sonn’s speech in Vilnius on October 19.

At that time, M. Sonnas unveiled the sculpture “Water Bearer” by the sculptor Romualdas Kvintas, who died two years ago, in memory of the Jews who lived in Vilnius. Paradoxically, the German ambassador devoted most of his speech to the horrible events of the Holocaust, its legacy and the memory of the Jews living in Vilnius. But the Kremlin was trapped elsewhere.

“During my country’s rule in Lithuania, about 95% of the people died there. Jews who lived here. 1945 The Red Army conquered Berlin and liberated the Germans from Hitler, only to be replaced by Stalin’s repression.

This story is told in the Lithuanian Museum of Occupations and Freedom Struggles, located in the former headquarters of the Gestapo and the KGB on Gediminas Avenue, ”said M. Sonnas.

And although a month has passed since that speech, it was in the Russian embassy and in the Kremlin that the words about Berlin, which had been conquered by the Red Army, and the alignment of the repressions of Hitler and Stalin, seem to have been broken.

“Germany promotes pseudohistorical theories that compare the Soviet Union to the Third Reich in terms of the causes of World War II, as well as the comparison of communist and Nazi regimes. This appears to be done to undermine German responsibility for the inhuman crimes of the Nazis.

Such an approach provokes our reaction of categorical rejection and raises questions about the difficult process of reconciliation with the German people in the post-war period, ”the Russian ambassador to Lithuania initially said. The record also calls for “the full and unconditional repentance of the German generations for the crimes of the German authorities at that time.”

Paradoxically, there was not a word in the German ambassador’s speech on the causes of World War II, although it was Nazi Germany and the USSR that provoked this war by jointly attacking and dividing Poland in 1939. having previously signed the secret protocols of the Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact.

And although the German ambassador had just emphasized the cruelty and horror of Nazi crimes, it was after 1941. The war between the USSR and Germany broke out on June 22, only modern Russia denies Soviet crimes. Furthermore, Germany acknowledges the crimes of the Nazis when the Kremlin, which condemned the Ribetrop-Molotov Pact in 1989, came up with the idea of ​​reversing that condemnation, and even Putin himself began to justify the deal. In Russia, there is real punishment for comparing Nazi and Soviet crimes or simply mentioning Soviet repression.

For his part, the German ambassador to Lithuania, M. Sonnas, added what he had previously recognized, and now Russia denies the existence of an iron border.

“Two generations from East Germany and Lithuania were kept under the Iron Curtain for half a century until they finally regained their freedom. Generations whose families did not die during the Nazi occupation of Germany,” Sonn said.

However, when Germany did not react in any way to the outrages of the Russian embassy, ​​the Kremlin ignited another propaganda team: the outrage began to be expressed in harsh words, and M. Zakharova herself began teaching history to the Germans.

“In our opinion, this is a cynical and rude provocation by a high-ranking German diplomat. This is the promotion of anti-Russian sentiment, which has been cultivating ultra-nationalist forces in Lithuania for decades,” Zacharova said, without explaining how the conquest of Berlin by the Red Army and the actual repression of Stalin were related to “anti-Russian sentiments” or what are those “ultra-nationalist forces in Lithuania”.

J. Stalin was a dictator of the USSR of Georgian nationality, myriop condemned or tortured not only the Germans, but also other nations, including the Lithuanians and Russians themselves.

However, Zacharova, who was in a hurry, did not reward the fact that German diplomats have forgotten that the Third Reich was planted with the rhetorical theory of Hitlerism, although it was this Nazi attitude in his speech that the German ambassador condemned.

“Unfortunately, we have to claim that Germany has recently been pushing forward more and more pseudohistorical narratives comparing the USSR and the Third Reich in the context of the genesis of World War II.” raises questions about the Russian-German reconciliation.

In Germany, Russia has grown increasingly cautious, especially after attempts to poison Kremlin criticism of Alexei Navalna, who is being treated in Germany. There was no shortage of cynicism in Russia to accuse the Germans themselves of poisoning Navalna, although German experts and the government confirmed that the Russian opposition had been poisoned with Novičiok, the only Russian-made drug.