She was speaking about the Ukraine crisis and made a comparison between the tactics being employed by Russian President Vladimir Putin this week and the tactics Adolf Hitler used back in the days of Nazi Germany leading up to World War II.
ValueWalk obtained this audio clip of her original comments. A spokesperson had previously declined to provide a transcript of her remarks to media.
Will the Russia – Ukraine crisis take us into World War III?
With so many speculating that the situation between Russia and Ukraine could develop into an all-out world war, Clinton’s comments were especially chilling. She made them at a private fundraiser in California, and she was referencing Putin’s decision to give Russian passports to those who have Russian connections but are living outside the country. She said basically that Putin was trying to protect ethnic Russians in the way that Hitler was trying to protect ethnic Germans in the 1930s.
Clinton noted that Putin essentially controls Crimea at this point and that most people are hoping for negotiations to ease the tension.
Clinton explains her remarks on the Ukraine crisis
The former U.S. Secretary of State made this statement (video via Sky News) today at UCLA’s College of Letters and Sciences:
“The claims by President Putin and other Russians that they had to go into Crimea and maybe further into eastern Ukraine because they had to protect the Russian minorities, and that is reminiscent of claims that were made back in the 1930s when Germany, under the Nazis, kept talking about how they had to protect German minorities in Poland, in Czechoslovakia and elsewhere throughout Europe. So I just want everybody to have a little historic perspective. I’m not making a comparison certainly, but I am recommending that we perhaps can learn from this tactic that has been used before.”
