No kidding, and what's with this "moral right" he's referring to? Hasn't Russia continually sent weapons to Syria over the last couple months for it to butcher it's own people? For how developed Russia is; it's shocking when you check out the population statistics. The male to female ratio drops rapidly beyond the age of 30 due to violence and alcohol related deaths (it's like a 0.7M:1F ratio).

All the more reason to visit.. all jokes aside there really is an eligible bachelor shortage - a large portion of men are drunks and disinterested in women.

He's baaaaaaak!

I want to know what MIGHT? Everything they make is crap. Putin is a joke and a nut ball. His crap will get

most of Russia wiped out. They couldn't even fight a war right next door and win. He needs to stop smoking crack.

Russia didn't do sh*t during WW2 except get their butts kicked. Germany lost because it had to fight a two-front war and ran out of resources, although Russia was one of those fronts, it still was the most incompetent military out there, and only won because of our help. (Not sticking up for Germany, I hate nazi's)

And btw, Russia has always, and probably will always, be ran by a bunch of Russian-Mafia representatives. And like any self-serving gang.....full of incompetence.

Jrt077 you have no idea about WW2, if it wasn't for the Russians, you would be speaking German, just like the rest of Europe, including Britain, the first ones to turn tail and run abandoning France to their fate at Dunkerque. The Russians sacrificed 25 million people, the US crapped it's pants at the thought of having to invade Japan and lose a million men and was about to give up on it if it wasn't for the Atomic Bomb.

jrt077,

was 26,000,000 deaths on the eastern front not enough for you? I think you may wish to look at the battle of saint petersburg facts as example. If that city had fallen, it would have been all over for russia.

85% of the German forces fought at the eastern front and 15% facing the allied forces at western Europe. In reality it was Soviet Union that defeated Germany. The contribution of the campaign at the western front paled in comparion with the eastern front.

The sacrifice and the contribution of the Soviet Union in WWII should not be denied or belittled.

It's amazing to witness so many comments here re-write the history of WWII claiming to "KNOW". You know NOTHING. Stalin LIKED Hitler! Stalin said he ADMIRED Hitler and Hitlers methods! At the early years of WWII Stalin signed a mutual Non-Aggression pact with Hitler! When Hitler broke that pact and invaded Russia Stalin was emotionally devastated as though he were betrayed by a lover! He stayed drunk for a critical ten days while the German army was rolling over the Red army! The USSR was able to rally and begin to hold only after Stalin reinstated the remainder of the old Russian generals who were the survivors of Stalin's "purge" assassinations of military generals during the solidifying of his power, internally. The USSR gave 20-25,000,000 deaths defeating Hitler you say? What of the 20,000,000 Russians killed BY Stalin prior to WWII. The USSR would never have been able to defeat Germany on it's own. But if, as was Stalin's hope, Hitler had not broken their pact, and Stalin JOINED Hitler, I would be writing this comment in either Russian or German right now.

@ amadeo122

The US was willing to sustain ANY number of casualties in it's invasion of Japan if it had been necessary. The Atomic Bomb was considered to have saved one million American casualties and two million Japanese casualties that were expected if invasion was necessary.

It drives me mad to see my fellow Americans (really the only people that I see make this assertion) say that the war could have been won easily without the "help" of the Soviet Union...Do 27 MILLION deaths mean nothing to you? Have you never read a history book in your life? A military history book? Anything?

Russia essentially defeated Nazi Germany by itself! Does that mean I think the US or Britain or any other allied country did nothing? HELL NO. But Russia and the rest of the countries on the Eastern Front suffered more dearly than any other nation in the war. Without a doubt. They have every right to treat Victory Day as a "sacred" holiday, and for anyone to diminish the sacrifice made by Russia during the war is outright insulting.

Coral Taxi

I agree .

It should not take very long and Putin will tip his hand . Then we will get a better read on which way he is going . My best guess is to the BANK !!!

bob

I don't think Poland lost half of its territory after WWII, the other nations did, but they were all NAZI allies, so they deserve it. The 3 Baltic states (Latvia, Lithuania & Estonia) continue to this day to cheer for their NAZI past.

You better read again. You forgot the Jews Hitler killed by the millions.

Hitler killed 6 million Jews. Stalin killed around 20 million Russians in his purges. Stalin "wins".

YOU better read again. Stalin killed scores more than Hitler did.

Yeah but Stalin was our ally in WW II so we don't like to talk about that...

I think what you're trying to say is Stalin killed more Russians than Hitler did.

@falconer33, it would be more correct to say that Stalin killed more Soviets than Hitler. As far as ethnic make up of his victoms goes he was equaly ruthless with all the people of the Soviet Union. What most people don't know is that Stalin was not even Russian, he was a Georgian (the contry in the Coucoses, not the US state in the south).

Actually, if you look at the Cultural Revolution and "The Great Leap Forward", Mao was the king of mass murderers, at 40 million I believe.

Hitler wasn't German either... he was Austrian.

I know what you're saying Ilya, my wife's father is from Abkhazia and her mother is Russian (Nizhny Novgorod). She is very clear when she says the FSU republics aren't Russian.

The japanese killed 33 million Chinese in WWII invasion. Try beating that!

It's Stalingrad that turned around WWII favoring the allies. Thanks.

I don’t know arguably it was the Battle of Kursk that was the turning point for the Allies, after all Germany may have lost Army Group South at Stalingrad but they lost the initiative after Kursk

Even counting the Jews, Stalin killed 5 times as many as hitler.

Where is the proof that Stalin killed 20 million???? do you have pictures? we have pictures of the holocaus, we have pictures of all the bodies being cremated and put in piles of jews......so where are the 20 million or 500 million that you claim to be slaughtered by Stalin? stop lying.

realy spaceout

Soviet Union and China suffered heaviest loss of life during WWII, with over 28 million death in the Soviet Union and 23 million in china. The death of 6 million jews in holocaust paled in comparison.

Dale R. 01 Hitler killed much more than 6 million Jews, do you think everybody in Europe was Jew? Damn ignorant. The NAZI killed French, British and millions of Slavic people in Poland, Ukraine, Russia, Belarus, etc.

to finish romilio's comment .....and....catholics, Gypsies, disabled (mentally or physically), Gay, and the largest demographics was Ukrainians. More than Jews was Ukraine. But then again Ukraine had a very large Jewish population. Great to see these reviews, shows allot of educated people (and some dumb @!$%#s too) Makes me feel good, that we all don't live in a USA bubble. But when it comes to the old Soviet Countries. They believe that only the Soviets won WWII and the west did nothing...that is some funny stuff. (spent time in those countries). Lets Cherish our grandparents and parents that survived these horrible times. My mother (1/2 Jew) survived the Spanish Civil War and post WWII Germany and Belgium.

Were Russians better prepared for the winter? Or they had bear fur on them? This is something that I always will hate about Americans, you guys will never admit the sacrifice that Russian solders and people made. Even worse , I heard that it was actually you are the ones who won the war.

Here some more history for you Ursa.....

Soviet Union lost over 20 million people defeating Hitler. They deserve recognition and credit for ending WWII in Europe what came after is not the issue here. History shows us what happens when people like you forget and don't keep history close in your memory, the war was something America never experiences first hand, no America cities lay in ruins from daily bombings like London did or the camps in which millions perished. Americans turned the tide of the war in the Pacific but in Europe it was the Soviets that ended Hitlers psychotic reign.

Thank you SNAPPA (I couldn't say it better).

Russians sacrificed it all to defeat Hitler and that should never be taken away, but "Soviets" er..Ukrainians and Lithuanians welcomed the nazis with open arms to "liberate" them from the Russians. And they were more than happy to kill and give up their Jewish next door neighbors while they were at it

Alina:

Now I wonder, do you remember Stalin making a deal with Hitler? Ask a Pole. Do you also remember Stalin crying about the Allies not opening a second front fast enough for him. Do you remember the US and England fighting in 4 theaters of action (I'll spell it out for you, Africa, Europe (that includes the southern front everybody seems to forget) CBI, and the Pacific). Perhaps you are the one that needs to do some studying.

By the way, Pearl Harbor was American territory. Place got pretty messed up.

dkelley - I think she meant more in terms of human sacrifice - every segment of the population suffered drastically during the war - my own grandparents from my mothers side were hiding in the woods of Urals eating berries for years after escaping nazi occupied Kiev - and they were just children. Thankfully here, it was mostly men of military age that had to fight.

Dkelley

In all fairness Pearl Harbour was first and foremost a military base, it was home of the US pacific fleet and the Japanese attacked it with the intention of hitting military targets (planes, ships, fuel farms etc.) that is pretty different to German airstrikes of cities such as Coventry (chosen for its cultural targets) Manchester, Liverpool and London (economic targets) so when people say that America hand no first-hand experience of WW2 they are being correct as no city on the American mainland was ever attacked, I do believe the Japanese tried to bomb LA with balloon bombs but that was a failure, and the Germans wanted to fire a submarine based V2 at New York but that never got past the drawing board.

dkelley, don't forget Britian bargained with Hitler also. Hitler betrayed everyone he dealt with.

The thing is Soviet Union did not have to suffer the losses they did during the war. I am not taking away anything from the everge solders, both my grandfathers served in Soviet Army, but if Stalin did not make that deal with Hitler WW2 does not happen. Also Soviets had all kinds of warning that Germans were going to attack, from numerous sourses and Stalin ignored all of them. He actually ordered his forces not to shoot back hourse AFTER Germans crossed the border. We should also remember all of their own solders who were shot for pulling back or for being taken prisoner. People who made it through Nazi POW camps were shiped to Siberia to Soviet camps. To say that suffering of Soviet poeple during WW2 gives curent leaders in Kremlin any kind of gravitas in international arena is rediculous.

Ilya-2069799

You are right the Soviets didn’t have to suffer the immense casualties that the suffered in WW2 however I do disagree in that Stalin not signing the Nazi-Soviet non-aggression pact of 1939 would have prevented WW2, as A the Europeans went to war with Germany over Poland and B Hitler was not going to back down over Poland because he wanted a war and he fervently believed that Germanys manifest destiny was in establishing a German empire from territory won in the east, also whilst Stalin did have ample warning from his intelligence services that Germany was going to attack, one problem was he didn’t know when, after all Hitler himself only signed the order for Operation Barbarossa 11 days before it started

By weakening the Russian army, Stalin invited the German invasion of Russia. In the 1930s, Stalin killed many generals and other officers. This left in command of the army, people who were loyal to Stalin, but not very good military leaders. The Russian invasion of Finland showed how disfunctional the Russian army had become. When Hitler saw all of this, he thought that he could defeat Russia. So, he tried.

In between Stalin and Hitler, a lot of people died.

To Losmuertos. Isn't it amazing that you say that WWII started because of Germany's invasion of Poland. Did you forget that it was a joint venture between Germany and the Soviet Union. However no one declared war on the Soviet Union. Stalin was totally pro German until Hitler invaded Russia.

asawa55

actually the whole joint venture thing is very open to interpretation, as the facts say that one the Russians didn’t move to occupy Poland until near the very end of the Nazi blitz there (which wouldn’t imply Soviet for planning) and pretty much after the real fighting had ended, two the deal to divide Poland was made to prevent Stalin from joining the Western Allies (so as a bribe) and three according to contemporary accounts of the time Stalin thought and was hoping for Germany and the west to fight another long war like WW1 (indeed this was both British and French Strategic planning and thinking) which again would point that Stalin wasn’t so much as working with Hitler as opposed to just biding his time and staying on the side-lines, so yes technically since Germany was the main aggressor in 1939 history is right in saying they started the war, but if it makes you feel any better there are some historians in China who argue that WW2 started in 1936-37 when Japan invaded China

Yes - and Ho Chi Minh read from the Declaration of Independence before we installed our puppet government and Donald Rumsfeld shook hands with Saddam Hussein and Osama Bin Laden was our ally when Russia was in Afghanistan.

We should focus on healing oruselves before we throw rocks at anyone else for a while.

Face it - if you are another country you should think twice when we offer to help

Healing ourselves is right. Just imagine what all the foreign aid money could do for OUR country. Boggles the mind.

Not ALL Germans were Nazis. Not ALL Germans were for the war. Read your history CAREFULLY!!

Lol isn’t that the exact same thing the right are saying about Obama?

Point taken Carl. However I know some Marines who served on Iwo Jima and some survivors who lived in the Philippines during the Japanese occupation that might take issue. Remember the Russians avoided confronting the Japanese until after Hiroshima. That is why it was called WORLD WAR II.

Carl, point taken, but if you read Alina's rants, we (Brits and Yanks) had nothing to do with defeating Hitler.

SNAPPA

Whilst I do agree that Russia deserves a hell of a lot of credit for its contribution to the war in Europe, as when stacked side by side the scale of the Eastern Front makes the Western Front look like a side show I think that for anyone who is really interested in history a broader degree of appreciation should be employed, after all Hitler’s planed invasion of the USSR in 1941 was delayed because of the British victories in Africa (against Italy) and by British forces being sent to Greece, whereas the Kursk offensive (1943) was cut short by Hitler so that he could send elite Panzer units to counter the Allied invasion of Italy and finally the Russian summer offensive of 1944 (Operation Bagration June 22^nd) owes some of its success due to the fact that Germany was already engaged in dealing with Operation Overlord (aka D-day, Normandy) and thus didn’t really have a strategic reserve.

....many of them already enjoy life that we here take for granted...

And do you have any examples or anything to support your statement?

Here, here!

Like the great hero of the 1917 revolution Lenin said "One step forward and two steps back", that is the way of revolutions. Russia is just passing from one stage of revolution to another. To answer your question yes they have learned a lot as the United States will soon realize that fact very well. The tide has turned, it is now Russia that has the resources and finances and the West who is going broke and is in social and financial decay.

It is also now very apparent that it was the Soviet Union who promoted world peace and stability not the United States and NATO. Since the breaking up of the Soviet Union the west has done nothing but start one war after another (with defenseless nations of course) like the bullies on the school yard. A strong and militarily mighty Russia is needed to restore order and curb the imperialist hegemonic aspirations of the United States and NATO.

lol how is that any different from the way the west talk now? After all the way Americans talk about the war you'd think they beat everyone single-handedly :)