Accessibility links

Breaking News

Russia Slams EU Resolution Stating Nazi-Soviet Pact 'Paved Way' For WWII


Russia has slammed a resolution adopted by the European Union that states the 1939 nonaggression pact between the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany "paved the way for the outbreak of World War II."

On September 20, Russia's Foreign Ministry labeled the European Parliament resolution as politicized revisionism.

The ministry complained that the text did not mention Western powers' 1938 Munich Agreement that led to Nazi Germany's invasion of Czechoslovakia.

"The European Parliament marked yet another outrageous attempt to equate Nazi Germany -- the aggressor country -- and the Soviet Union, whose peoples, at the cost of huge sacrifices, liberated Europe from fascism," the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

The world this year marked the 80th anniversary of the accord – known as the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact -- in which Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union agreed to divide up Central and Eastern Europe.

The EU resolution said the pact set out to divide Europe "between the two totalitarian regimes" of Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union.

The Nazis eventually betrayed the pact with their surprise invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941.

Based on reporting by dpa and Interfax

RFE/RL has been declared an "undesirable organization" by the Russian government.

If you are in Russia or the Russia-controlled parts of Ukraine and hold a Russian passport or are a stateless person residing permanently in Russia or the Russia-controlled parts of Ukraine, please note that you could face fines or imprisonment for sharing, liking, commenting on, or saving our content, or for contacting us.

To find out more, click here.

XS
SM
MD
LG