"Hitler took over the Sudetenland with such methods," warned German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble over the weekend, drawing parallels between Putin's push into Ukraine and the start of the Nazi occupation of Europe. This did not go down well in Moscow and German Ambassador Ruediger Freiherr von Fritsch was summoned to the Russian Foreign Ministry as the Russians lodged an official protest. Merkel was quick to distance herself from the remarks (which Russia calls a "trick") demanding that "a high-ranking official should take more responsibility for his words."
Schaeuble's comments...
"Nobody will be there to maintain order [in Ukraine]," Schaeuble said. Should such chaos ensue, Russian authorities may reason that "now we have some fascists threatening the population; now we have to protect them. We all know this from history. Hitler took over the Sudetenland with such methods."
As Bloomberg reports,
Russian Foreign Ministry condemns German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble for drawing “pseudo-historical” parallels between annexation of Crimea and Hitler’s pre-war seizure of Sudetenland from Czechoslovakia.
The Hitler analogy is a “gross distortion of historical events and facts,” ministry says.
Russia's foreign ministry statement [4]:
A few days ago the German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble, speaking to students a Berlin school, spent unacceptable historical parallels between the reunification of the Crimea with Russia and Hitler's seizure policy in 1938, the Sudetenland was then Czechoslovakia and the subsequent transfer of control of the whole Czechoslovak territory.
We believe this kind of pseudo-German Minister provocative digressions. Admitted they are rough analogy juggling historical events and facts. Occupying high government official ministerial post in Germany must give an account of his words. It is noteworthy that this trick from Schaeuble distanced themselves Chancellor Angela Merkel and Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier.
Today, the Russian Foreign Ministry, Ambassador of Germany in Moscow appropriate representation was made.
And now Schaeuble is out defending himself...
- *SCHAEUBLE SAYS HE'S NOT `STUPID' TO COMPARE HITLER WITH OTHERS
- *SCHAEUBLE SAYS GERMANY WANTS `GOOD PARTNERSHIP' WITH RUSSIA
- *SCHAEUBLE SAYS HE WASN'T COMPARING HITLER AND PUTIN MAR 31
Hhhm, you decide if he was or was not...