Hillary
Clinton said that tactics implemented by Russia in Crimea are
reminiscent of those used by Nazi Germany before World War II.
Speaking at a fundraiser in
California, Clinton drew a parallel between Adolf Hitler's rhetoric that
ethnic Germans living in neighbouring countries he later invaded were
oppressed, and Vladimir Putin's claim that ethnic Russians in Ukraine
are under threat by nationalists and radicals.
The
former US secretary of State, who is widely expected to run for US
president in 2016, particularly criticised Moscow over the issuing of
passports to ethnic Russians living in Ukraine's Crimean peninsula.
"Now if this sounds familiar, it's what Hitler did back in the 30s," Clinton said, the Long Beach Press-Telegram reported.
"All
the Germans that were ... the ethnic Germans, the Germans by ancestry
who were in places like Czechoslovakia and Romania and other places,
Hitler kept saying they're not being treated right. I must go and
protect my people and that's what's gotten everybody so nervous."
Clinton, 66, made the comment at a $1,500-a-head fundraiser for the Boys and Girls Club of Long Beach.
She also said that Putin believes "his mission is to restore Russian greatness."
"When he looks at Ukraine, he sees a place that he believes is by its very nature part of Mother Russia," Clinton said.
Harry Saltzgaver, who attended the event, told Buzzfeed that Clinton added there was "no indication that Putin is as irrational as the instigator of World War II."
Earlier this week, Vladimir Putin was accused of acting like Hitler in 1930s also by the former foreign minister of the Czech Republic, Karel Schwarzenberg.
"Since
he wanted to invade Crimea, he needed a pretext and said that his
compatriots were oppressed," said Schwarzenberg."When Hitler wanted to
annex Austria, he said that Germans there were oppressed."
Putin has claimed it would be legitimate for Russia to use force to protect its interests in eastern Ukraine and Crimea.
"We
have received a request from a legitimate president," Putin told a
press conference. "Also we have historical and cultural ties with those
people. And this is a humanitarian mission. It's not our goal to conquer
somebody."
He said deploying
the military would be the last resort but and denied that troops without
insignia who took over strategic locations in Crimea are Russian.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/ukraine-crimea-crisis-hillary-clinton-compares-russian-president-111139669.html
