FINANCIAL TIMES: …Vladimir Putin said Poland behaved in the same way by seizing part of Czechoslovakia when Germany attacked that country, adding: “Serious research has shown that such methods were part of foreign policy at that time. The Soviet Union signed a non-aggression pact with Germany. They say: ‘Oh, how bad.’ What is wrong here if the Soviet Union did not wish to fight? What is wrong with this?”
A western European diplomat said Mr Putin’s remarks reinforced doubts over his commitment to the cornerstones of the European security order. “The secret protocol [to that pact] defined the territories of a handful of neighbouring states along the lines of a Soviet and a German sphere of influence,” he said. “He seems to be saying that was OK in the historical context. What about the current context?”…
Two European diplomats in Moscow said Mr Putin’s defence of the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact would fuel fears of revisionism in Moscow, already high because of the Ukraine crisis… (more)
