Putin: Germans Should Not Be Forced to Hate Themselves Over Their Past

Q: Do you think that the moment of historical reconciliation with the Germans has already come?

Vladimir Putin: I don't know how it seems to you and how the viewers will take my words but I have a feeling that there is no hatred of the Russian people for Germany, for the Germans. There is no internal rejection. As they say, time heals all wounds. I am not a supporter of forcing all generations of Germans to self-chastise and flagellate themselves for the terrible past that their country and the whole of Europe, and the whole world have experienced. For the past associated with Nazism, with fascism. In this case — German fascism.

Of course, we all need to draw conclusions from the past. and don't allow anything like this in the future. We must cherish history, its purity. We must not allow history to be distorted or substituted. The fact is that Gerhard came and brought with him a group of veterans of World War II, those who fought against the Soviet Union. People who looked at each other over guns, shot at each other, met in a completely different world with the awareness of the common future of Europe, the common future of the world, with ideas about the need to maintain the peace — it is very symbolic and correct.