In a May 6 briefing, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova powerfully discussed the role of the Soviet Union and the Red Army in defeating fascism during the 1941-1945 Great Patriotic War, but offered some “related history lessons” as well, again targeting the British role in supporting and promoting fascism, both then and now. She pointed out that the foreign guests attending the May 9 events commemorating the end of the war and defeat of Nazism/fascism, “share our principled assessments of the causes that led to the Second World War, its outcomes, and the role of the Soviet Union in defeating Nazi Germany and its allies…. This is a powerful argument against disingenuous claims that modern-day Russia has allegedly appropriated Victory.”
She underscored: “The peoples of the Soviet Union defeated the enemy together. No one will be able to diminish our feat or split our common victory into separate victories.… The peoples of the Soviet Union not only defeated the Wehrmacht, but also brought life, liberation and salvation to the peoples of Eastern and Central Europe. The Red Army, the Soviet soldiers literally stopped the Nazi extermination machine in its tracks and put out the crematoria of the Holocaust.”
