“I do not want to characterize the Stalinist regime, you know, we all know what is connected with the repressions, camps, and losses among our citizens during these repressions. This is a black page in the history of our country, but to say that Stalin unleashed a war is the height of cynicism. As if at 4 a.m. on June 22, the Soviet Union attacked Germany, and not vice versa, ”the Russian president said.
He called not to forget the tragic result of the war for the Soviet people.
“Let's not forget that it was the troops of the Soviet Union that stormed Berlin. Here, all sorts of speculation is now about the contribution to the struggle against fascism of certain countries ... I just said - the loss of the Soviet Union is 25-27 million people. The loss of the United States is half a million people. And the losses of Great Britain in general, in my opinion, are 350-400 thousand people ... The most striking forces in terms of both quality and quantity were concentrated on the Eastern Front, ”Putin said.
According to him, today the threat is that in the process of various fraud, the main thing may be lost - people may stop being afraid of the recurrence of these tragedies.
In July, Sergei Ivanov, Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Russian Military Historical Society, said that on the eve of the 80th anniversary of the outbreak of World War II, new anti-Russian fakes could be expected.
He added that exposing the Soviet Union and Stalin is becoming very fashionable and that the accusations made against the USSR are actually being made against Russia.