Comparing Leaders

-          Vladimir Putin: February 20, 2014 Russian soldiers invaded and occupied Crimea, Ukraine to “protect the ethnic Russians” living there.

-          Adolph Hitler: March 12, 1938 German soldiers invaded and occupied Austria to “protect the ethnic Germans” living there.

-          Putin: March 16, 2014 with Russian military weapons pointing at them the people of Crimea “vote” to join the Russian Federation.

-          Hitler: April 10, 1938 with German military weapons pointing at them the people of Austria “vote” to join Nazi Germany.

-          Putin: March 18, 2014 Crimea is annexed into the Russian Federation.

-          Hitler: April 1938 Austria is annexed into Nazi Germany.

-          Putin: April 16, 2014 Russian troops (backed by ethnic Russians living in Ukraine) invade the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine to “protect the ethnic Russians” living there.

-          Hitler: October 1938 German troops (backed by ethnic Germans living in Czechoslovakia) invade the Sudetenland of Czechoslovakia to “protect the ethnic Germans” living there.

-          Putin: Wanted to re-create Novorossiya (Новороссия) or New Russia which lasted from 1754-1918 which included all of southern Ukraine which would unify the ethnic Russian populations in Eastern Europe.

-          Hitler: Wanted to create a Greater Germanic Reich (Großgermanisches Reich) which would  unify the ethnic German populations in Central and Eastern Europe.

-          Putin: Russian Government policies in annexed Crimea and in areas they control in the Donbas  are meant to “Russify” the regions. Non-ethnic Russians (ethnic Ukrainians and ethnic Tartars) are officially discriminated against. Moscow has sent in specialists to eradicate any Ukrainian or Tartar influence and any person using the Ukrainian or Tartar language (on the street, in the media or at home) “disappears” and is sent to the Russian Federation.

-          Hitler: German Government policies in annexed Austria, Czechoslovakia and in areas they controlled in Eastern Europe were meant to “Germanize” the regions. Non-ethnic Germans (ethnic Czechs, ethnic Slovaks, ethnic Poles, etc.) are officially discriminated against. Berlin sent specialists to eradicate any Czech, Slovak, Polish influence and any person using the Czech, Slovak or Polish language (on the street, in the media or at home) “disappears and is sent to Nazi Germany.

This is where the differences stop.  

-          Hitler: In 1938 the leaders of France and the United Kingdom used the policy of appeasement to try and stop Hitler. The French and British internationally recognized Hitler’s right to Austria and Czechoslovakia in the hope that it would stop him from going after the rest of Europe. That policy was a complete failure and Hitler went on to occupy most of Europe and North Africa (including France and parts of the UK.)

-          Putin: In 2014 the leaders of the United States, Canada, Ukraine, the EU, Norway, Australia, Switzerland, Montenegro, New Zealand and Japan introduced international sanctions on the Russian Government, Russian companies and Russian citizens for their role in the annexation of Crimea and the fighting in Donbas. The United Nations also passed Resolution 68/262 that officially condemned (100 countries supporting the Resolution, 11 countries rejecting and 58 countries abstaining) Russia’s actions.

-          Putin: The International Sanctions against Russia caused the Russian financial crisis with the Russian Ruble declining in value and the basic standard of living for the majority of Russian citizens plunging to levels not seen since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. The Russian Government has had to waste so much government money trying to keep the country afloat (as well as supporting dictators in Syria and Venezuela while still fighting in Donbas) that Putin’s domestic policies have started to affect his popularity. On October 3, 208 he signed a new Pension Bill that increased the retirement age from 60 years to 65 years for men and from 55 years to 63 years for women. The average life expectancy for Russian women is 76 years old and the average life expectancy for Russian men is only 64 years old. The Russian Government hopes that the majority of Russian men will die before they can retire and receive their government pensions. This has led to countless protests with thousands of ordinary Russians participating. As of January 2019 the percentage of Russians trusting Vladimir Putin hit a historic low of 33.4%.

-          Putin: The Russian Government (especially Vladimir Putin) did not learn from the actions of Hitler’s Germany or from the Soviet Union and in fact Putin has simply used the same actions used by both the Nazis and the Soviets to try and achieve what he wants to.

-          Conclusion:  Both Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union eventually collapsed.

-          The map shows Novorossiya (Новороссия.) Russia was already in Transnistria, Moldova (since the 1990s) and is in Crimea, Ukraine and parts of Lugansk Oblast, Ukraine and Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine. The Ukrainian forces and international pressure has stopped Russia from fulfilling their dream.