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Friday, June 05, 2009

A Russian History Lesson for Kiev

The Russians are defending Stalin's actions that led up to World War II. And even better, the Russians blame Poland for being invaded by Nazi Germany. All this in a new, officially non-official analysis:

The paper, titled "Fictions and Falsifications in Evaluating the USSR's Role On the Eve of World War II," recounts how in the run-up to Germany's invasion of Poland on Sept. 1, 1939, Hitler demanded that Poland turn over control of the city of Danzig as well as a land corridor between Germany and the territory now known as Kaliningrad.

"Everyone who has studied the history of World War II without bias knows that the war began because of Poland's refusal to satisfy Germany's claims," he writes.

Kovalyov called the demands "quite reasonable." He observed: "The overwhelming majority of residents of Danzig, cut off from Germany by the Treaty of Versailles, were Germans who sincerely wished for reunification with their historical homeland."

I'm sure that when Moscow tells Ukraine that it must give up Crimea and eastern Ukraine, where lots of ethnic Russians live, the government in Kiev will certainly not want to be blamed for starting a war, and so will give up that territory. I mean, everyone knows that the Russians today are no less reasonable in their goals than the Nazis were.

This also explains how the Russians can blame Georgia for last August's war that led to Russia's formal annexation of Abkhazia and South Ossetia.

And the Russians actually wonder why their neighbors are eager to join NATO, and might want American troops or missile defense installations on their soil?

Amazing. Let their "why do they hate us?" lamentations begin.