Quotable notes

"Given that the defeat of the Soviet army would have given Hitler control of strategic resources and territory that almost certainly would have made Germany's defeat impossible, it is entirely appropriate for President Bush to acknowledge in Moscow the historic debt of the American people to those 27 million Soviet soldiers and civilians who died in the war.

"Given how Stalin used that victory and the sacrifices of those soldiers and civilians, it is at the same time entirely appropriate for President Bush to travel to Riga to denounce how the Soviet leadership turned wartime cooperation in defeating one totalitarian regime into the pretext for imposing another totalitarian system in Eastern Europe.

"American citizens and their leaders should be deeply troubled that Russia's leadership has not only failed to denounce Stalin's annexation of the Baltic states and Soviet occupation of Eastern Europe, but has sought to justify and even glorify the Nazi-Soviet Pact and post-war imposition of Soviet-style regimes in Eastern Europe. This failure is both a symptom and cause of Russia's inability to become a successful and modern major power in the 21st century."

- Celeste Wallander, director of the Russia and Eurasia Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, Washington, May 6, as cited by The Action Ukraine Report.

Copyright © The Ukrainian Weekly, May 29, 2005, No. 22, Vol. LXXIII

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