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Prince Charles Compares Putin to Hitler
by John M. Curtis
(310) 204-8700
Copyright
May 21, 2014
All Rights Reserved.
Visiting Canada on a goodwill mission,
65-year-old Prince Charles caused quite a stir comparing 61-year-old Russian
President Vladimir Putin to Adolf Hitler, while speaking directly with a Polish
refugee that fled Nazi-occupied Europe in 1939.
Charles told Marienne Ferguson, who was 13 when she immigrated to Canada,
that “now Putin is doing some of the things Hitler was doing,” making the same
loose analogy as former Secretary of State and possible 2016 Democratic
presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton March 4. Speaking to the Boys and Girls Club
of Long Beach March 4, Clinton compared Putin’s move in Crimea to Hitler’s in
Eastern Europe. “Now, if this
sounds familiar, it’s what Hitler did back in the 30s, referring to Hitler’s
efforts to protect ethnic Germans in lands as far away as Poland. Charles’ remarks stirred
up a hornet’s nest in the British parliament.
What makes Charles and Hillary’s comments so outrageous is the fact the
real unlawful coup took place Feb. 22 in Kiev, where duly elected pro-Russian
Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich was driven from power by an angry mob
backed the U.S. and European Union.
While no one knows for sure what drove the revolution, Kiev’s pro-Western
leaders, acting President Oleksandr Turchinov and Prime Minister Arseniy
Yatsenyuk, claim that Yanukovich’s rejected the EU’s Nov. 29 offer to
restructure Ukrainian debt.
Yanukovich accepted Putin’s $16 billion bailout of the Ukrainian economy and
discounts for paying down past natural gas debts, moving forward with new energy
purchases. What irked protesters, led by 42-year-old now incognito former heavyweight champion boxer
Vitale Klitschko, about Yanukovich’s deal with Moscow remains unclear.
Putin watched while hosting the
Sochi Winter Olympics an anti-Russian coup topple Yanukovich Feb. 22. When the games ended Feb. 29, it
only took Putin a few days to invade Crimea March 1. With oil pipelines and his navy
base, home to Russia’s warm water Black Sea fleet in Sevastopol, to protect,
Putin moved into Crimea to safeguard Russian interests. “I must say that I agree with him
and am sure a lot of people do,” said Ferguson, agreeing with Charles that Putin
acts like Hitler before he swallowed up most of Europe. When British Prime Minister Neville
Chamberlain signed the Munich Accord with Hitler Sept. 30, 1938, he essentially
gave ceded Czechoslovakia Hitler, calling the agreement “peace for our time.” Comparing Putin’s annexation of an
historic part of Russia comparable in any way to Hitler’s annexation of
sovereign European countries, goes over the top.
Western officials often cite Putin’s lament about the 1991 end to the
Soviet Union as proof to his evil intentions.
As a former KGB agent during the heyday of Soviet times, Putin watched
the Soviet Union grow in worldwide clout during the Cold War. Putin also saw the Kremlin’s extreme financial strain of providing jobs, health and
retirement benefits to millions of citizens living in the Soviet satellites from
the Southern Caucasus Mountains to the Northern Baltic Sea. Watching Charles empathize with a
victim of Nazi oppression and muck up Britain’s already strained relations with
Moscow shows how the Royal Family should stay out foreign affairs. Charles’ remarks throw gasoline on
an already volatile crisis that has watched U.S.-Russian relationship hit the
lowest point since the Cold War. Incendiary remarks, whether by heads of state or would be monarchs, have no place in
today’s dialogue.
British politicians condemned the Prince of Wale’s comments as
inappropriate and counterproductive.
“However, we would like to stress that the Prince of Wales would not seek
to make a political statement during a private conversation,” said Clarence
House in a statement, emphasizing that foreign policy is set by elected
officials in both houses of parliament.
“In constitutional monarchy policy and diplomacy should be conducted by
parliament and government,” wrote Parliament member Mike Gapes. Given the delicate situation with
Putin deploying some 40,000 Russian troops near the Ukrainian border, making
Hitler comparisons only makes matter worse.
While certainly rattled nerves in the Baltic States and Poland, there’s
no evidence whatsoever that Putin seeks to seize more sovereign territory in
Ukraine or Europe. Scurrilous
accusations only make a bad situation worse.
Putin reacted defensively to the Feb. 22 unlawful anti-Russian coup that
drove Russian-backed Yanukovich from power.
Hostile public remarks from Ukraine’s youthful post-revolutionary leaders
also haven’t helped matters, pushing Putin to take more defensive actions. When Putin seized Georgian sovereign
territory in South Ossetia and Abkhasia in 2008, it was in response to
provocation by U.S.-educated and friendly leader Mikheil Saakashvili. More insulting comparisons to
Hitler’s appeasement before WW II shows little understanding of the current
geopolitics in the Ukraine. Despite
all the pro-Russian support in Eastern Ukraine, Putin signaled he has no intent
of taking more Ukrainian territory.
Faced with economic and travel sanctions, Putin shows no signs to marching to
self-destruction. He’s realizing
how his Ukraine policy has hurt Russia’s economy and relations to the West.
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