Vladimir Putin
Putin: sending Soviet tanks into Hungary and Czechoslovakia was a mistake
VLADIVOSTOK, Russia, Sept 12 (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday that the Soviet Union's decision to send tanks into Hungary and Czechoslovakia to crush mass protests during the Cold War was a mistake.
“It was a mistake,” Putin said when asked about perceptions of Russia as a colonial power due to Moscow’s decision to send tanks into Budapest in 1956 and into Prague in 1968.
“It is not right to do anything in foreign policy that harms the interests of other peoples,” said Putin, who in 2022 sent tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine, triggering the biggest land war in Europe since World War Two.
Putin said the United States was making the same mistakes as the Soviet Union. He said Washington had “no friends, only interests”.
The 1956 Hungarian Uprising was crushed by Soviet tanks and troops. At least 2,600 Hungarians and 600 Soviet troops were killed in the fighting.
The 1968 Prague Spring was ended when Soviet-led Warsaw Pact forces invaded the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic. Around 137 Czechs and Slovaks died as a result of the invasion, according to Czech historians.
(Writing by Guy Faulconbridge; Editing by Mark Trevelyan)
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What a bestial and evil liar!!! What he says was a mistake by the odious and revolting Soviet Union, he is repeating the very same. Only a dimwitted and deranged fool like him could countenance such hypocrisy. “ It is not right to do anything in foreign policy that harms the interests of other peoples”!!! Tell that to the Chechnians, Syrians and Ukrainians! As for the US not having friends but interests – who needs “friends” like Russia has? With the likes of Iran, North Korea, Venezuela, Cuba, SA etc – he can keep them. By the way, China nor India is not a friend of his. They are simply making hay whilst the sun sunshine’s on cheap gas and oil. What a misguided moron!!