Russia's Putin Likens U.S. Policy to 'Third Reich'

Russian President Vladimir Putin launched a thinly veiled attack on the United States, comparing American foreign policy to the "Third Reich” in a speech on Wednesday.

Putin’s comments were the latest in a series of Russian criticisms of the U.S. on Iraq, missile defense and NATO expansion, as the Russian leader maintains that America is striving to single-handedly dominate world affairs, the International Herald Tribune reported.

Putin delivered the speech from a podium in front of Lenin’s Mausoleum on Red Square as he marked Victory Day, the 62nd anniversary of the defeat of Nazi Germany.

"We do not have the right to forget the causes of any war, which must be sought in the mistakes and errors of peacetime,” he declared.

"Moreover, in our time, these threats are not diminishing. They are only transforming, changing their appearance. In these new threats – as during the time of the Third Reich – are the same contempt for human life and the same claims of exceptionality.”

Putin did not mention the U.S. by name. But Sergei Markov, director of the Institute of Political Studies – who works closely with the Kremlin – confirmed to the Herald Tribune that Putin was referring to the United States and NATO.

"He intended to talk about the United States, but not only,” Markov said, in reference to the sentence citing the Third Reich. "The speech said that the Second World War teaches lessons that can be applied to today’s world.”

According to the Herald Tribune, Russians say Putin’s "sharper edge” is a reflection of "frustration that Russia’s views, particularly its opposition to NATO expansion, have been ignored in the West.”