To think, "Well said Prince Charles!"

[FrancesNiadova]

I agree with the news commentators who say he shouldn't be writing to cabinet ministers, trying to influence policy. However, Putin, invading countries & handing out Russian passports, is behaving like a land-grabbing dictator.
Prince Charles is not the King, yet, so he is maximising his opportunity to say, well, what we're all thinking, basically.
I remember the controversy of the State Visit of the Chinese President. Instead of joining the formal greeting party & banquet, he booked himself to attend a much more minor event in Cornwall, to show his disgust for human rights abuses. The snub was not missed by the Chinese & the media.
Is it unreasonable to be pleased that he speaks out & a bit by the bad press he's getting for it!

' But no one is making him pass homophobic laws'

As far as I can see, his laws are not too different from Thatcher's laws and no one called her Hitler.

'make assertions about protecting all Russians who live in other states'
What do you think America would do if Americans were dying in other countries?

William wouldn't turn up for the weekly PM meeting, he would be too busy shooting something or burning Ivory I will just sit back and watch Charles do his thing instead.

'But just because it's convenient for them to compare Putin to hitler, doesn't mean he's not contributing to the effect.'

He is not like Hitler and yet they are painting him as a Hitler, and they painted Saddam and Assad as Hitler and look what happened to them.

"Hillary Clinton says Vladimir Putin’s Crimea occupation echoes Hitler"

www.theguardian.com/world/2014/mar/06/hillary-clinton-says-vladimir-putins-crimea-occupation-echoes-hitler

"Hillary Clinton raised some eyebrows Tuesday by comparing Russia's incursion into Ukraine to the early days of Nazi Germany's expansion.

But she's got plenty of company. Not only did Sens. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and John McCain (R-Ariz.) make similar comments; in fact, comparing Putin to Hitler has been going on since the Russia-Georgia crisis of 2008.

Here's a brief history of the folks other than Clinton who have made some kind of comparison between Putin/Russia and Hitler/Nazi Germany:

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.): "If you could go back in time, would you have allowed Adolf Hitler to host the Olympics in Germany? To have the propaganda coup of inviting the world into Nazi Germany and putting on a false front?"

Former national security adviser Zbigniew Brzezisnki (in 2008): Putin is "following a course that is horrifyingly similar to that taken by Stalin and Hitler in the 1930s."

And again today: Called Putin "a partially comical imitation of (former Italian Prime Minister Benito) Mussolini and a more menacing reminder of Hitler."

Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird: "The Sudetenland had a majority of Germans. That gave Germany no right to do this in the late 1930s."

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper: "We haven't seen this kind of behavior since the Second World War."

www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/wp/2014/03/05/all-of-these-people-have-compared-vladimir-putin-to-hitler/

Do you think these people really believe that Putin is like Hitler? Do you really believe that the politicians who said Saddam and Assad were like Hitler believed it?

Or were they saying it to convince the public, just as the tabloids say it to convince the public?

And why do they have to convince us lowly plebs, the public?

Because otherwise we might vote UKIP and agree with Farage that "the EU has blood on its hands over Ukraine".

But there are also parallels with hitler in the case of both Hussein and Assad.

It's not uncommon - comparisons to hitler are often simply used to mean a tyrant who persecutes their own people and becomes despotic and clings to power. Applies to Assad, applied to Hussein, also applies in north Korea, and yes people did say it about thatcher, I remember it directly in relation to clause 28. The difference with thatcher is she got kicked out, as she hadnt achieved despotic powers.

We even commonly say little hitler about office despots. It's an exaggeration obviously. But I don't think the "hitler" association is the shocking extreme you're suggesting.

There are two issues here - a) is the US / the west / the daily mail manipulating perception of Putin? Totally see your argument that they are.

But b) - is his behaviour alarming? Yes. I've been finding him alarming for years, since way before the Ukraine thing. Finding him alarming doesn't necessarily make me a gullible idiot.

(Oh and I am as far from voting ukip as it is possible to be. And I don't see how the daily mail can be on both sides. If they want us to think Putin is hitler so we don't vote ukip, why does their editorial stance encourage all the kinds of beliefs that lead to ukip support?)

'a) is the US / the west / the daily mail manipulating perception of Putin? Totally see your argument that they are.'

But why are they doing it? Is there a reaon behind it? Are they all singing to the same hymn sheet?

Here is a writer for teh financial journal, the Economist, writing in teh plebs' paper, the Daily Mail

He ends the article with the following lines

"These recent events are particularly sinister and troubling in the light of European history in the years before World War II. The heir to the throne understands this.

But our politicians won’t speak about it. Where is our Winston Churchill when we so desperately need him?"

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2635617/Hitler-Putin-Charles-right.html

What is significant about Churchill? He was our wartime leader against Hitler.

Do we really need another Churchill to counter Putin? Is that where we are heading?

Putin is correctly pointing out that ethnic Russians/Russian speakers in the Baltic states are effectively stateless and are legally discriminated against, with the EU and US turning a blind eye. This discrimination is done out of sheer vindictiveness.

It was only very recently that same sex sexual activity has been legal in the US -- 2003 to be exact. Gay marriage remains illegal in many states. Sodomy laws were struck down in Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, counties of SE Missouri, Virginia, N & S Carolina, Florida, Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana, Colorado and Idaho only in 2003. The Defense of Marriage Act was enacted in 1996 and has been largely struck down in the courts since then. 'Don't ask, don't tell' was how LGBT servicemen and women were expected to live their lives in uniform from 1994 until 2011. DADT followed the relaxation of restrictions on service in the military by gay Americans that were in effect until 1993.

In my own lifetime, the National Guard was sent to various states in the South of the US to enforce school segregation and it took an amendment to the constitution to clarify that black people do in fact have the right to vote. Marriage between black and white men and women was legalised only in the last 50 years.

The US is pretty shameless about preaching to other countries about how they should be run, when you think about it.

In the UK, brilliant mathematician and patriot Alan Turing was hounded to suicide in the 1950s. As late as the late 90s there were attempts to enact a higher age of consent for homosexual sex than for heterosexual sex on the grounds that the protection of children was at stake.

Yet Britain joins the chorus of booing when Russia does not fall over herself catching up with rights that took gay people in the west hundreds of years to win.

Meanwhile in China, human and civil rights abuses go unchecked, Tibetan culture and society are being wiped out, prisoners are hired out to factory owners for profit. The US occasionally makes a bit of a meek peep about rights, but not too loudly for fear of upsetting the American business interests who make a fortune in China.

And we really cheapen Hitler when we compare every Tom, Dick and Harry that we disapprove of to him.

We cheapen his crimes and we disrespect his millions of victims.

'why does their editorial stance encourage all the kinds of beliefs that lead to ukip support?'

The Daily Mail is anti UKIP even though nearly all of its readers are for UKIP and are now against the Tories. But the Daily Mail is frightened that the Tories will lose power because they are losing touch with the people and Mail readers. They want the Tories to be more like UKIP, but they don't want UKIP. They don't want Farage, because he is not a puppet. It was only Farage who said "the EU has blood on its hands over Ukraine".

The only two expansionist powers in the world right now are the US and China.

At least he uses his position to speak out on issues close to his heart. Probably a real snob in other aspects. But for me, he's better than those rancid MPs who claim to be against human rights abuses and further hardship for the working classes - then promptly "forget" all that and zip their mouths shut for the sake of a huge salary and a ministerial car.

I just thought of Godwin's law when I heard. Charlie has no business to be commenting in his position, its unconstitutional and hypocritical.

He doesn't do his credibility any favours when he opens his mouth.

Yes Putin is quite terrible, first he defends his national interests relatively bloodlessly when hostile powers attempt to subvert his allies, next he'll probably start inventing reasons to murder hundreds of thousands of people in oil rich countries. Thankfully the clearly morally superior western governments are one step ahead by murdering the innocent middle easterners first.

I feel sorry for those gullible enough to swallow the western propaganda on Ukraine.

I'm glad that Prince Charles spoke out. The crisis in Ukraine & the point of view Putin is putting across is similar to that of Hitler in 1938. The German speaking people in Sudetenland were stateless and being discriminated against. That was the reason for annexing part of Czechoslovakia. Surely the historical comparisons are there!

I feel sorry for those gullible enough to swallow the Russian propaganda on Ukraine.

Hey. Putin is just an all round cuddly guy, with a mean line in macho photo oops. I'm buy him a vodka when he is next in town. [Hmm]

There was no crisis in Ukraine apart from the financial one manufactured by Ukrainians themselves until the US paid for and started a revolution there that toppled a legitimately elected president.

Just like the Anschluss. Even down to the involvement of Nazis and Nazi supporters.

He's not cuddly, he's BUTCH!

What the BBC won't show:-

Right Sector members throwing molotov cocktails at the trades union building in Odessa causing the deaths of over 40 men and women.
Those jumping from the burning building described as 'Colorado Beetles' due to the orange and blue colours of their patron saint.
Those who survived the jump being beaten to death.
Ukrainian authorities using UN marked helicopters to attack Donetsk and Slaviansk. (For which Marat Saychenko and Oleg Sidyakin were arrested. They work for Life News, a Russian tv station).
A $10000 bounty for Graham Phillips, a freelance journalist based in Sevastopol, mostly seen/heard on RT, France24 and Five Live. Graham was arrested and held for 36 hours. Jen Psaki described all three journalists as terrorists, which, given the US treatment of whistleblowers and journos recently is no surprise.

Can't there be wrong on both sides? The trouble is those defending Putin on this thread are coming across like puppets themselves - suggesting he is blameless and a lovely bloke just defending his country and his homophobia etc. is fine because it's what Thatcher did 30 years ago. That doesn't make it fine by me, sorry.

I didn't support how the US behaved in Iraq - not at all - but the extraordinarily dodgy role the US/West played there didn't make Hussein a saint. Same with Putin. I can dislike Putin and worry about his actions without being a gullible, pro-US fool.

I think while we're discussing this we ought to bear in mind that the nazis killed more Russians than any other nationality during the last world war.

This doesn't condone what Putin is doing, but it might explain why that comparison is particularly offensive to him.

Can't there be wrong on both sides?

^^ Just that. There are two sides to this. The Russians are paranoid about their western border, and the ex-Russian colonies are looking to the EU and Nato for protection. Meanwhile the US wants as much of the world as possible for its corporations to exploit.

Ukraine is just one point where the two clash. It palls into insignificance beside Syria. The US (mistakenly) supports the Syrian rebels, while Russia pours in military aid to keep the brutal government in control. I'm proud of the UK parliament in standing firm in refusing to get involved on the ground as the US would have liked.

Meanwhile, the long-term winner is China which is steadily buying up resources around the world to support its growth, and will eventually be telling both sides what they will be permitted to do.

There is no doubt that Putin's policies run very closely with Hitler's early years. Whether that will continue to the more extreme actions of Hitler's later years is anybody's guess. I look back to Hitler's protection of his eastern border by his non-aggression pact with Stalin. Putin has just done something very similar by his 30-year gas deal with China.

The Putin supporters would promote their case a little better here on MN if they were a little less radical. MN are a cynical bunch and can see that he is not every mother's favourite son as he is being painted. And MN knows very well to take the Daily Mail with a truckload of salt.

Quoting the DM on political matters is just pointless. DM on-line makes money from page clicks by serving up celeb gossip and other soft non-news stories that appeal to non-politically aware semi-literates. They take no interest on Putin, and the US to them consists of Hollywood, Disney and McDonalds. I doubt very much whether 1% of them could point to the Ukraine on a globe.