Russian leaders compare Europe, attacks on Russian culture to Nazi Germany
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Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov.
PHOTO: REUTERS
MOSCOW (AFP) - Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Friday (March 25) compared Europe’s tactics to those of Nazi Germany, slamming historic sanctions against Moscow and saying the term “total war” has been borrowed from Hitler’s playbook.
“They have declared a true hybrid war, a total war against us,” Mr Lavrov said at a meeting in Moscow.
“This term – used by Nazi Germany – is now used by many European politicians when they say what they want to do with Russia.”
He said European officials were making no secret of their goals – to “destroy, break, annihilate and suffocate the economy and Russia as a whole.”
Since Russian President Vladimir Putin sent troops to Ukraine on Feb 24, the West has pummelled Moscow with unprecedented measures, making Russia the most sanctioned country in the world.
Moscow has said it aims to “de-militarise” and “denazify” Ukraine.
The Soviet Union’s role in defeating Hitler’s Germany in 1945 remains a huge point of pride in Russia and lies at the centre of Mr Putin’s patriotic discourse.
Mr Putin has denounced the West’s economic “blitzkrieg” and compared the sanctions to “anti-Semitic pogroms carried out by Nazis”.
He has also accused the West of working to weaken Russia with the help of “national traitors”.
Mr Putin on Friday slammed the West for discriminating against Russian culture, which he likened to Nazi supporters burning books in the 1930s.
“Today they are trying to cancel a thousand-year-old country,” he said during a televised meeting with Russian winners of culture-related prizes.
“I am talking about the progressive discrimination against everything connected with Russia, about this trend that is unfolding in a number of Western states, with the full connivance and sometimes with the encouragement of Western elites,” Mr Putin added.
“The proverbial ‘cancel culture’ has become a cancellation of culture,” the Russian president said, adding that works by Russian composers were being excluded from concerts and books by Russian authors “banned”.
“The last time such a mass campaign to destroy unwanted literature was carried out was by the Nazis in Germany almost 90 years ago... books were burned right on the squares.”
“Today they are trying to cancel a thousand-year-old country,” he said during a televised meeting with Russian winners of culture-related prizes.
“I am talking about the progressive discrimination against everything connected with Russia, about this trend that is unfolding in a number of Western states, with the full connivance and sometimes with the encouragement of Western elites,” Mr Putin added.
“The proverbial ‘cancel culture’ has become a cancellation of culture,” the Russian president said, adding that works by Russian composers were being excluded from concerts and books by Russian authors “banned”.
“The last time such a mass campaign to destroy unwanted literature was carried out was by the Nazis in Germany almost 90 years ago... books were burned right on the squares.”
Earlier, the Kremlin also accused US President Joe Biden of seeking to divert attention from his country's chemical and biological weapons programme after he said Russia could use such weapons in Ukraine.
"We see this as an attempt to divert attention to some kind of ephemeral, allegedly existing threat against the backdrop of a scandal that is flaring up in the world involving chemical and biological weapons programmes that the United States has been carrying out in various countries, including Ukraine," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
"There are many people in the world who are worried about what the Americans were doing, what we still don't know and what could have happened because of all this research and what could potentially happen in the future," he said.
The Russian Defence Ministry this week accused Mr Biden's son, Mr Hunter Biden, of funding biological weapons labs in Ukraine through his investment fund Rosemont Seneca.
"Of course we will demand explanations," Mr Peskov said on Friday.
"And not only us," he said, adding that China also had questions.
On Monday, the US President said it was "clear" Russia was considering using chemical and biological weapons in Ukraine and warned of a "severe" Western response if it chose to do so.
He also denied that the United States was holding chemical and biological weapons in Europe.
"Simply not true. I guarantee you," he told a gathering of US business leaders in Washington.
