Russian President Vladimir Putin has defended former German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder. Schröder has faced criticism due to his close relationship with Putin. This was reported by t-online.de.
In the show “Moscow. Kremlin. Putin”, on the state broadcaster Rossija 1, Putin initially stated in Russian, “I would like to say, the further one gets from Schröder, the closer one comes to Anthony Rota, the Speaker of the Canadian Parliament, who sympathizes with the Nazis.” He repeated the statement in German and added, “There are many decent people in Germany, and I am sure many will hear this.”
Putin was referring to an incident at the end of September. At that time, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was visiting Canada. During the visit, the 98-year-old Ukrainian Yaroslav Hunka was honored by Parliament Speaker Anthony Rota as a World War II veteran. However, Hunka had fought as a member of a Waffen-SS division on the side of Nazi Germany. Rota had described Hunka as “a Ukrainian and a Canadian hero.” Following the incident, Rota resigned.
Image: Kremlin.ru, Vladimir Putin 25.11.2022, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (image size modified)
