Kremlin’s Approach to World War II Underlines Its Final Rejection of Path Democratic Russia Pursued, Amanuel Says

Paul Goble

            Staunton, September 1—Many people of good will around the world have been horrified by Moscow’s Stalinist defense of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact and its hysterical attacks on Poland for not inviting Vladimir Putin to the commemoration of the beginning of World War II, but they have often failed to recognize what Moscow’s statements mean, Grigory Amanuel says.

            They represent, he argues, the final rejection by the Putin regime of the democratic path that democratic Russian pursued after the collapse of communism and before the rise of the power vertical dictatorship and thus put Putin’s regime beyond the pale of civilized humanity (kasparov.ru/material.php?id=5D6BA9FD43AC2).

            Not only has Russia’s foreign minister nowreferred to Stalin’s USSR as “our country (mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#inbox/FMfcgxwDqxNLFXMsfRsGqNlnhHdWGNWQ?projector=1), but Moscow’s defense of Molotov-Ribbentrop, its explanation of the origins of World War II, and its attacks on Poland are in the same language Stalin used.

            It is as if 1991 never happened and means that the Kremlin if not the people of Russia have rejected the path democratic Russia chose then. Consequently, Moscow’s words about 1939 now are far more significant and far more depressing than many appear willing to acknowledge, as important as such acknowledgement is for the future of the country.