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 Amnuel says.
Mr. Amnuel, a filmmaker, producer and politician, argues that Moscow’s statements represent the final rejection by the Putin regime of the path that democratic Russia pursued after the collapse of communism and before the rise of the power vertical dictatorship and thus put Vladimir Putin’s regime beyond the pale of civilized humanity (kasparov.ru/material.php?id=5D6BA9FD43AC2).
Not only has Russia’s foreign affairs minister now referred to Joseph Stalin’s USSR as “our country,” but Moscow’s defense of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, 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, has rejected the path democratic Russia chose at that time. Consequently, Moscow’s words about 1939 now are far more significant and far more depressing than many appear willing to acknowledge.
Paul Goble is a long-time specialist on ethnic and religious questions in Eurasia who has served in various capacities in the U.S. State Department, the Central Intelligence Agency and the International Broadcasting Bureau, as well as at the Voice of America and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. The article above is reprinted with permission from his blog called “Window on Eurasia” (http://windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/).