Vladimir Putin: U.S. foreign policy is like Nazi's Third Reich

Putin likens U.S. foreign policy to that of Third Reich

By Andrew E. Kramer

Wednesday, May 9, 2007

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MOSCOW: President Vladimir Putin of Russia obliquely compared the

foreign policy of the United States to the Third Reich in a speech

Wednesday commemorating the 62nd anniversary of the defeat of Nazi

Germany, in an apparent escalation of anti-American rhetoric within

the Russian government.

Putin did not specifically name the United States or NATO but used

phrasing similar to that which he has used previously to criticize

American foreign policy while making an analogy to Nazi Germany.

The comments marked the latest in a series of sharply worded Russian

criticisms of the foreign policy of the Untied States - on Iraq,

missile defense, NATO expansion and, broadly, the accusation that the

United States has striven to single-handedly dominate world affairs.

Some political analysts see the new tone as a return to Cold War-style

rhetoric by a country emboldened by petroleum wealth. But Russians say

the sharper edge is a reflection of frustration that Russia's views,

particularly its opposition to NATO expansion, have been ignored in

the West.

Putin's analogy came as a small part of a larger speech in which he

unambiguously congratulated Russian veterans of World War II, known

here as the Great Patriotic War.

Speaking from a podium in front of Lenin's Mausoleum on Red Square

before troops mustered for a military parade, Putin called Victory Day

a holiday of "huge moral importance and unifying power" for Russia and

went on to enumerate the lessons of that conflict for the world today.

"We do not have the right to forget the causes of any war, which must

be sought in the mistakes and errors of peacetime," Putin said.

"Moreover, in our time, these threats are not diminishing," he said as

he delved into what one expert said was clearly an allusion to U.S.

foreign policy. "They are only transforming, changing their

appearance. In these new threats - as during the time of the Third

Reich - are the same contempt for human life and the same claims of

exceptionality and diktat in the world."

The Kremlin press service declined to clarify the statement, saying

Putin's spokesman was unavailable because of the holiday.

But Sergei Markov, director of the Institute of Political Studies, who

works closely with the Kremlin, said in a telephone interview that

Putin was referring to the United States and NATO. Markov said the

comments should be interpreted in the context of a wider,

philosophical discussion of the lessons of World War II. The speech

also praised the role of the allies of the Soviet Union in defeating

Germany.

"He intended to talk about the United States, but not only," Markov

said in reference to the sentence mentioning the Third Reich. "The

speech said that the Second World War teaches lessons that can be

applied in today's world."

The United States, Putin has maintained, is seeking to establish a

unipolar world to replace the bipolar balance of power of the Cold War

era.

In a speech in Munich on Feb. 10, he characterized the United States

as "one single center of power: One single center of force. One single

center of decision making. This is the world of one master, one

sovereign."

The victory in World War II, achieved at the cost of roughly 27

million Soviet citizens, still echoes loudly in the politics of the

former Soviet Union, particularly in Russia's relations with the

Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.

In his speech, Putin criticized Estonia - also indirectly - for

recently relocating a monument to the Red Army in Tallinn, the

Estonian capital, along with the remains of unknown soldiers buried

there. Putin warned that desecrating war memorials was "sowing discord

and new distrust between states and people." The remarks were a nod to

the protests in Russia and Estonia after the relocation of the Bronze

Soldier memorial from the city center to a military cemetery.

In last May's Victory Day speech, Putin brushed on similar themes of

the lessons of the war. Then, he spoke of the need to stem "racial

enmity, extremism and xenophobia" in a possible reference to rising

ethnic tension inside Russia.

Victory Day has evolved into the principal political holiday in

Russia, replacing the Soviet-era Nov. 7 celebration, Day of the Great

October Socialist Revolution. That holiday was canceled under Putin

and replaced with another, marking a 1612 uprising against Poland,

celebrated on Nov. 4.

Veterans gathered at war memorials festooned with red carnations sang

"Katyusha" and toasted departed comrades in traditions little changed

over the decades. The Red Square parade opened, according to

tradition, with drummers from the Moscow Military Music Academy and

closed with the marching band of the Moscow garrison. The defense

minister, Anatoly Serdyukov, arrived in a gray Zil convertible

limousine. About 7,000 soldiers sang the Russian national anthem a

cappella.

At one point, a formation of MiG jets thundered over the square. As

the planes pulled up and away, a pilot broadcast a message to the

veterans over his radio. "We love you and remember you.

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