Vladimir Putin's shock claim about US 'conniving with Jihadists' exposed

In a statement made in 2004, President Putin hinted he thought the US were trying to break up the Russian state while also claiming Washington was helping terrorists to achieve this goal. He said in September 2004: “Some want to tear off a piece of fatter from us, while others help them. They [the US] help, believing that Russia – as one of the largest nuclear powers in the world – still poses a threat to someone. Therefore, this threat must be eliminated.

“And terrorism is, of course, only a tool to achieve these goals.

“We, as I have said many times, more than once faced with crises, riots and terrorist acts. But what happened now is the inhuman, unprecedented in its cruelty crime of terrorists.

“This is not a challenge to the President, Parliament or Government. This is a challenge for all of Russia. To all our people.

“This is an attack on our country.”

The comments came after the 2004 school siege in the Russian town of Beslan. The three-day hostage situation saw 1,100 illegally captured and ended with 334 deaths, including 186 children.

Although the implications of linking Washington to such an act were clearly controversial, Mr Putin made the comments at a time of heightened tension and sensitivity.

Historian and Russian politics expert Robert Service said in his 2019 book ‘Kremlin Winter’: “Putin implied that the Americans were conniving in the growth of jihadism on Russian territory.”

The attack was carried out by a group of Islamist militiants originally from Ingushetia and Chechnya, located in northeast Russia.

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On September 17, 1939, the Soviet Union’s Red Army invaded Poland 16 days after the Nazis had done from the west. The country was split into a Soviet controlled area and a Nazi controlled area before the Soviets seized control of all of Poland two months later.

A spokesman for Russia’s London Embassy told TASS in response: “This statement, made on the day of the 80th anniversary of the beginning of World War 2, is perplexing.

“With all historical discussions around the Soviet military operations in the eastern areas of Poland , to describe things in a way that effectively equates the actions of the USSR to Hitler’s aggression is absolutely unacceptable.

“If one is to discuss who, apart from Hitler, is responsible for the Polish tragedy of 1939, one cannot avoid recalling the role of the British diplomacy that not only connived in the Nazis’ aggressive policies, but also continuously frustrated Soviet proposals to build an efficient anti-Nazi alliance, including specifically to defend Poland.”

source: express.co.uk