Zeev's Turnips Talk Politics (ZTTP)

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Russian Leaders Compare Georgian President With Hitler, Saddam
08/11 10:31 am (ON)
Story 0285

MOSCOW (AFP)--A top Russian politician Monday compared Georgian actions in South Ossetia with Nazi Germany's invasion of the Soviet Union after Prime Minister Vladimir Putin likened them to Saddam Hussein's war crimes.

"I can compare this treacherous attack with the attack by Hitler on the Soviet Union in June 1941," the Speaker of the lower house of Russia's parliament, Boris Gryzlov, was quoted as saying by ITAR-TASS news agency.

Georgia's offensive late last week to retake its breakaway province of South Ossetia was an attempt to "maintain the territorial integrity of Georgia by destroying Ossetians," he said.

Russia responded to the offensive by pouring troops into the region and bombing targets across Georgia.

Putin earlier Monday compared the actions of Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili to war crimes perpetrated by deposed Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.


"Saddam Hussein, of course, needed to be hanged for destroying several Shiite villages," Putin said. "But (not) the current Georgian leadership, which in less than an hour drove tanks through children and old people, burned people alive in their homes. These leaders need to be protected!"

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08 -11 -08 1031ET

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