Vladimir Putin is like Adolf Hitler - Hilary Clinton

 

Hillary Clinton inflamed tensions over Ukraine by comparing Vladimir Putin’s aggression with Adolf Hitler’s actions before the Second World War.


The former US Secretary of State said Russia’s attempt to hive off Crimea was no different to Germany’s annexation of Czechoslovakia in 1939.

Lashing out at Russia’s plan to issue passports to ethnic Russians in Crimea, she said: “Now, if this sounds familiar, it’s what Hitler did back in the 1930s.”

She added: “All the Germans that were the ethnic Germans, the Germans by ancestry who were in places like Czechoslovakia and Romania and other places, Hitler kept saying they’re not being treated right. I must go and protect my people, and that’s what’s gotten everybody so nervous.”

A senior Russian historian backed Mrs Clinton’s analysis. Prof Andrei Zubov said: “We must not behave the way Germans once behaved, based on promises of Goebbels and Hitler. This has all happened before. Austria. Early March, 1938. The Nazis want to enlarge their Reich at the expense of another state.”

In a major escalation of tensions between America and Russia, the US military said it would step up training with Poland’s air force and provide more US aircraft to a Nato air policing mission in the Baltics.

Nato said it was reviewing all co-operation with Russia. The move came as Crimea teetered on the brink of lawlessness yesterday with pro-Russian militia hounding diplomats and international observers.

A United Nations envoy was forced to flee for his life after being threatened by armed men on a visit to the Ukrainian peninsula. Special representative Robert Serry had to seek sanctuary in a cafe with ITN reporter James Mates before escaping under guard to the airport.
In a series of tweets, Mates said Mr Serry had been visiting a navy commander in Simferopol when his car was surrounded by gunmen.

Mates said: “He refused to go with men blocking car, got out and walked until he found coffee shop. He’s asked ITV News team to stay with him.”

The diplomat eventually managed to leave for the airport through a crowd of protesters chanting “Putin! Putin!” Around 100 Russian protesters also surrounded the Crimean offices of the

Organisation for Security and Co-operation after it announced it was sending

35 unarmed observers to the region. Waving Russian flags, the demonstrators chanted “Russia! Russia! Russia!” as they marched on the building.


Pro-Russian protesters also tried to storm a government building in the eastern Ukrainian city of Donetsk.

Despite the blatant intimidation, Russia rejected calls from the US to withdraw its troops from Crimea. During another day of intense diplomacy, US Secretary of State John Kerry met briefly with his Russian opposite number Sergey Lavrov in Paris.

The two foreign ministers last night headed for talks with their French, British and Ukrainian counterparts but it was not clear if the Russians and Ukrainians would even agree to holding face-to-face negotiations.