Russian President Vladimir Putin, during a visit by German Chancellor Angela Merkel, defends the infamous pact between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union that agreed to divide up eastern Europe.
Putin had, in the past condemned, the pact as unethical.
On August 23, 1939, Germany and the Soviet Union agreed to carve up eastern Europe between them in a secret clause of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact on non-aggression.
“When the USSR realized that it was left facing Hitler’s Germany alone, it took steps so as to not permit a direct collision and this Molotov-Ribbentrop pact was signed,” Putin says at a news conference in response to a question from a journalist.
He was asked to respond to comments by Russia’s outspoken culture minister Vladimir Medinsky praising the pact as a triumph of Joseph Stalin’s diplomacy.
“In this sense, I share the opinion of our culture minister that this pact had significance for ensuring the security of the USSR,” adds Putin.
He stresses that the Soviet Union had been pushed to sign the pact after the earlier 1938 Munich agreement signed by Britain, France and Italy with Adolf Hitler ended hope of a united front against the Nazis.
The pact came after the USSR made “numerous efforts to create an anti-Fascist bloc in Europe” that ended in failure, he continues.
— AFP
Russian President Vladimir Putin (right) shows the way to German Chancellor Angela Merkel as they prepare to leave the joint press conference at the Kremlin in Moscow, May 10, 2015. (photo credit: AFP/Kirill Kudryavtsev)
Help us report truthfully on social media
As a multimedia journalist, my job is to take the quality, fact-based journalism produced by The Times of Israel newsroom and make it accessible across every platform — from Instagram posts to podcasts to short-form videos.
This is how many, especially young people, consume news these days. But misinformation is rampant on social media. Our team at ToI produces accurate, responsible short-form reporting on Israel and the Jewish world.
If you believe in the importance of factual social media journalism, please consider joining our reader support group, The Times of Israel Community. Your financial support is essential to sustain responsible multimedia reporting.
We’re really pleased that you’ve read X Times of Israel articles in the past month.
That’s why we started the Times of Israel - to provide discerning readers like you with must-read coverage of Israel and the Jewish world.
So now we have a request. Unlike other news outlets, we haven’t put up a paywall. But as the journalism we do is costly, we invite readers for whom The Times of Israel has become important to help support our work by joining The Times of Israel Community.
For as little as $6 a month you can help support our quality journalism while enjoying The Times of Israel AD-FREE, as well as accessing exclusive content available only to Times of Israel Community members.
Thank you, David Horovitz, Founding Editor of The Times of Israel
From the Liveblog of
Sunday, May 10, 2015
Add ToI as a Preferred Source on Google
