Russia Must Resist the Manipulation of WWII History, Says Putin

During an annual session of the Kremlin’s “Victory” committee, Russian President Vladimir Putin cautioned the international community against falsifying and manipulating historical facts, especially concerning World War II. The meeting on Thursday comes three weeks before the seventy-second anniversary of the end of World War II.

“Unfortunately there are other approaches to history where there are attempts to turn it into a political, ideological weapon,” Putin said. “We’ve seen the risks of a cynical approach towards the past, like the falsification, manipulation of historical facts which leads to the cowardice of a nation.”

The Soviet Union’s victory in 1945 has been celebrated anew in Vladimir Putin’s Russia, where it is used to underline Russia’s heroic efforts and often undermine those of the USSR’s allies in the war. In recent years, WWII has become a central theme in television news, film and culture. The narrative of victory over Nazism is also widely applied to the war in Ukraine, where the Kiev government is often compared to Hitler’s Germany.