Vyacheslav Nikonov an MP from President Putin’s “United Russia” party and member of the Russian State Duma has called the European Union “Hitler’s coalition”.
Nikonov is the head of the State Duma Committee on Education and Science and chairman of the board of the Russkiy Mir Foundation. His remarks follow fast on the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. He was speaking at a round table entitled “Spiritual, moral and patriotic education of youths in the light of the Great Victory.”
“After the UK leaves the European Union, there is practically no country left in the EU that was not either a member of the Nazi axis or allied with Nazi Germany. The whole European Union was in the past Hitler’s coalition or those who bowed before him. There was not a single country opposing Hitler. France was also defeated, and its plants worked for Germany,” Nikonov said.
It is perhaps no surprise that Nikonov is the grandson of the former Soviet Minister of Foreign Affairs Vyacheslav Molotov, who signed the Non-Aggression Treaty with Nazi Germany Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop.
According to the agreement, Russia and Germany undertook to refrain from attacking each other and to maintain neutrality if one of them were attacked by a third party. Germany and Russia were also bound to refrain from alliance with other countries, directly or indirectly targeting the other side. The mutual exchange of information on issues affecting the interests of both parties was also provided for in the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. The agreement was accompanied by a secret additional protocol that carved out shares that defined the areas of interest in Eastern Europe in the event of a “territorial and political reorganisation.”
The protocol provided for the allocation to the USSR of Latvia, Estonia, Finland, the eastern “regions that make up the Polish state”, and Bessarabia. Lithuania and the western part of Poland were assigned to Germany.
