Putin: Stalin’s Repressions Is A Black Page In Our History But Blaming Him For WW2 Is Utter Cynicism

Russian President Vladimir Putin: I do not want to characterise the Stalin regime now. You know, we all know about the repressions, camps, losses among our people, our citizens during those repressions. This is a black page in the history of our country. But saying that Stalin started the war is utter cynicism. As if it was the Soviet Union that attacked Germany at 4 am on June 22, and not the German troops crossed the Soviet border, violating the existing non-aggression treaty, attacked the Soviet Union unilaterally without declaring war. Let us not forget the sad outcome, the tragic outcome, tragic for the people of the Soviet Union: 25–27 million dead (no one has been able to make a final count to this day), and about ten million dead in Germany. This is a tragedy. Do not forget that it was the Soviet troops that stormed Berlin. This is regarding the speculations about certain countries’ contribution to the fight against Nazism. I just said – the Soviet Union losses stand at 25–27 million,