MOSCOW. June 25 (Interfax) - The truth about the role of the USSR in WWII is being deliberately eroded so that those who don't want to build the system of international security in the interests of all countries can receive modern benefits, Russian President Vladimir Putin said.
"Of course, politicians in the West and specialists on history like you all know everything very well. Do they not know that it wasn't the Soviet Union that attacked fascist Germany, but fascist Germany attacked [the USSR]? Do they not know that? They know everything. Do they not know who killed the fascist beast in its den, who stormed Berlin? Of course they know. But they're not writing that in their textbooks. Different ideas are being promoted in the media," Putin said during a meeting with the new members of the Public Chamber via videoconference.
The truth about the war, which is disliked, is being eroded consistently, step by step.
"In 1938, Western politicians gave evaluations of the [Munich] plot, the agreements on the division of Czechoslovakia signed by the so-called Western democracies, then-France, the UK, and fascist Germany. And they said then that it triggered the world war. Now, they're forgetting it, eroding it. Why? Because they don't like it, because they want to build today's relations in their own interests. They're not learning anything, unfortunately. And they don't want to build the system of international security in the interests of the whole world and with regard for the interests of all participants in international activities," Putin said.