Clinton: I did not compare Putin to Hitler

Former secretary of state accuses Russian leader of squandering his nation’s potential by trying to ‘re-Sovietize’ the region

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin is a tough but thin-skinned leader who is squandering his country’s potential, former US secretary of state Hillary Clinton said Wednesday, a day after she likened his actions on the Crimean peninsula of Ukraine to those of Adolf Hitler in the 1930s.

Clinton, a potential 2016 presidential contender, warned during her latest speech at the University of California, Los Angeles that “all parties should avoid steps that could be misinterpreted or lead to miscalculation at this delicate time.”

Putin has said he was protecting ethnic Russians by moving troops into Crimea.

However, Clinton said at a closed fundraising luncheon in Long Beach that Hitler had maintained that he was protecting Germans when he invaded places such as Czechoslovakia and Romania.

“Now if this sounds familiar, it’s what Hitler did back in the ’30s,” Clinton said Tuesday, the Press-Telegram of Long Beach reported. “Hitler kept saying, ‘They’re not being treated right. I must go and protect my people.’ And that’s what’s gotten everybody so nervous.”

Responding to a question submitted at the UCLA talk, Clinton said she was not making a comparison although Russia’s actions were “reminiscent” of claims Germany made in the 1930s, when the Nazis said they needed to protect German minorities in Poland and elsewhere in Europe.

“I just want everybody to have a little historic perspective. I am not making a comparison, certainly. But I am recommending that we perhaps can learn from this tactic that has been used before,” she said.

Clinton said Putin is trying to “re-Sovietize” the periphery of Russia but is actually squandering the potential of his nation and “threatening instability and even the peace of Europe.”