WASHINGTON, United States.- On the anniversary of the defeat of Nazi Germany 77 years ago, Vladimir Putin paid tribute to Soviet soldiers and remembered the sacrifice of millions of his people in a military parade. But he forgot to say that the defeat of Adolf Hitler did not bring about an era of freedom and prosperity for the Soviets, nor for the Poles, Czechs, Hungarians, Lithuanians, Germans, Slovaks and others who fell for more than 40 years under Communist vassalage until the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Putin forgot to mention that the triumph over Hitler was possible due to a great alliance that included, in addition to Russia and the United States, England, Canada and other allied countries, and that the United States gave Moscow the indispensable resources to be able to resist Nazi aggression.
This week, Putin hoped to impress the Russian people by announcing the victory of Russian forces in Ukraine at the parade. But it could not be. When President Biden offered his Ukrainian counterpart a plane to get him out of the country, the Ukrainian said that what he needed were warplanes, weapons and anti-tank rockets. The Ukrainians, like the Russians when the Nazi armies were at the gates of Moscow, have surprised the world and caused many casualties to the invader.
Putin should not like the fact that the United States never accepted the occupation and subordination of these European nations to the Soviet empire as definitive, and that the peoples rebelled against it at the slightest opportunity.
Nor that as a consequence of its criminal war against Ukraine, cohesion within NATO has increased, and that Finland and Sweden aspire to join that defensive treaty. And Putin and his allies must have felt very bad when, despite his many efforts, Russia was suspended from the United Nations Human Rights Council; something that worries Havana, that it could also be expelled now that it does not have the protection of the Kremlin in the Council.
The Russian ruler is undoubtedly concerned that the war against Ukraine is today recognized as part of Moscow’s geopolitical ambitions, just like the occupation of Crimea, despite the Budapest Memorandum in which Russia, England and the United States guaranteed territorial integrity. Ukraine, in exchange for kyiv handing over its nuclear weapons to Russia.
Another result of the war against Ukraine is to remind the European chancelleries of the occupation of Georgia and Moldova and the subordination of the government of Belarus to Moscow. It is partly for this reason that Putin’s excuses about the war in Ukraine have no credibility.
And what about statements by the Russian Foreign Ministry that a greater US presence in Europe could result in the deployment of thousands of Russian troops to its allies in the Western Hemisphere, presumably Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela?
Already in the Capitol they are wondering if these Russian military movements would justify that Panama prohibits the transit through the canal to Russian-flagged ships or others that help Putin to violate the restrictions that have been imposed on him.
Meanwhile, the Russian leader tries to improve his government’s image around the world by presenting an incomplete and false narrative of World War II. As if the secret treaty between Hitler and Stalin to carve up Central Europe had never happened, and as if Stalin had not been a partner in crime with Hitler, until thousands of Nazi soldiers crossed the border and German bombers blew up a few airfields soviet military.
After the conclusion of World War II, various US administrations, possibly fearful of another European war, confined themselves to protesting Soviet repression in their neighboring countries, initiating Voice of the United States of America and Radio Europe broadcasts. Free, who broke the iron censorship in the satellite countries, transmitting news to those captive peoples.
In 1968, the Czechs started a reform movement, the so-called “Prague Spring”, and the Soviet Union invaded the country. In language much like Putin’s recent statements on Ukraine, Fidel Castro, who was leader of the non-aligned countries, approved the invasion.
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