Interfax: Distortion of history always used as anti-Russian weapon – Putin

GUBKIN, Belgorod region. July 14 (Interfax) – The distortion of history as a way of fighting Russia has been used always, Russian President Vladimir Putin said.

“As for the distortion of our history – that, as you know, has existed almost always. Throughout our whole history,” Putin said at a meeting with workers at the Lebedinsky GOK iron ore mining and processing plant on Friday.

He quoted the Russian Emperor Alexander III who once said that because everyone fears the size of Russia, it has only two allies: the army and the navy.

“This way of fighting Russia has been used always,” Putin said.

As an example, he recalled “the famous legend about Russian Tsar Ivan the Terrible killing his son.”

The attempts to falsify the Russian history are the continual struggle to compete with Russia, he said.

“Russia started stabilizing, started getting stronger [as seen from abroad], too strong, so it needs to be pressed a little. And immediately these insinuations begin, including the distorted stories: if we have always been so bad, then what can one talk to such people about,” Putin said.

This tool of fighting Russia will continue being used, he said.

“There is no need to go crazy about this matter, it should simply be approached as a working aspect. But we need to show our own position persistently, clearly, comprehensibly, argumentatively,” Putin said.

“And if we do, and pay due attention to it, then all attempts to distort something and use it against us will be doomed to fail,” Putin said.

As an example of a distortion of Russian history Putin suggested asking the Japanese who dropped nuclear bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and almost one in three would say: the Soviet Union. “This is nonsense, but that’s how it is. Ask: who made the main contribution in the victory over the Nazi. It is clear that an ordinary Westerner would always say: the United States, Great Britain,” Putin said.

British WWII losses stood at around 350,000, America’s, at about 500,000, the Soviet Union lost 27 million people, having been the primary focus of the Werhmacht machine, the president said.

“You have Prokhorovskoe Pole nearby. We all know what Prokhorovskoe Pole is, but few in the world heard about it. [We] should talk and not be shy about it,” Putin said.

That is necessary not for showing Russia’s grandeur but for showing its real role in global processes, the president said.

[featured image is file photo from different occasion]