Medvedev briefs soldiers on arms and history
Published: 16 November, 2009, 14:59
Edited: 17 February, 2010, 08:29
Dmitry Medvedev tours the flagship "Varyag" in Singapore on November 16, 2009 (AFP Photo / RIA Novosti / Kremlin Pool / Mikhail Klimentyev)
(4.0Mb) embed videoTAGS: Military, Medvedev, Politics, History
While other leaders are heading home from the APEC summit in Singapore, Russian President Medvedev has been onboard the Russian Navy warship “Varyag”. There he talked to sailors on different issues of state importance.
Dmitry Medvedev toured the ship and then had a 40-minute talk with the crew in the cabin. Speaking with sailors, Medvedev elaborated on Russia’s plans for the navy, armed forces rearmament and other issues.
Naval and military plans
Dmitry Medvedev said that Russia plans to step up its navy presence in the world’s oceans and has given his view on the prospects of the Russian naval force.
“We understand that Russia can only be considered the true naval power if it has a real navy, not a virtual one or one that is still in training. The navy should be capable of different tasks, taking part in battles as well as training,” president said.
“Our navy has recently been involved in more campaigns and we found funding for them. We are also ready to send our naval forces to help other missions – it is in the interest of our country as well as other countries and the international community,” Medvedev added.
He has also noted that, in the next decade, Russia will fundamentally rearm its military forces. According to Dmitry Medvedev, the armed forces must be rearmed by 30-50% and in some cases 80-90%.
“The task must be fulfilled, otherwise we will be unable to say that we have an effective army and navy,” he said.
Medvedev also pointed out that the financial crisis will not affect the rearmament of Russian armed and naval forces.
“The impact of the financial crisis on military issues will be minimal,” he said. “All key items of the state program of arms procurements will remain unchanged, including the strategic and other components."
Talking to the Varyag crew, the Russian president also elaborated on Russian history and some other issues.
“Revision of World War II outcome unacceptable”
Dmitry Medvedev stressed that Russia will not allow revision of the results of World War II for geopolitical reasons.
“A revision of the outcome of World War II and the contribution of the Soviet Union and the Red Army is unacceptable for geopolitical reasons. If we open this box, we could get real serious state problems,” Medvedev said.
The head of state added that the war left a number of disputed questions that still remain open, such as territorial disputes with Japan.
“If we allow the events to develop differently, it can lead to things such as reconsideration of the decisions made by the Nuremberg tribunal. They will say ‘Why try them? They are not criminals.’ It is absurd,” Medvedev said.
“We should not fight different viewpoints, but defend our own interests and prevent the falsification of history, which could harm the interests of the Russian state,” president added.
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Mazipan smells like pyro and feels funny, . .'Medvedev and his colleagues simple set up a straw man, time and time and time again, and triumphantly knock it over.' Somethings smells fishy..
For at least the hundredth time, Medvedev alleges that someone or another is trying to “revise the outcome of World War II and the contribution of the Soviet Union and the Red Army”, yet he never gives even one example of anyone who actually disagrees with the fact that the Red Army played an absolutely pivotal and irreplaceable role in the defeat of Nazi Germany. Medvedev and his colleagues simple set up a straw man, time and time and time again, and triumphantly knock it over. Nor is anyone anywhere that I know of trying to “revise the outcome of World War II.” That outcome was recorded in history from the day the war ended, and forms a consistent narrative in history books everywhere in the world – except in Russia. This does not mean that everyone else if “revising the outcome of the War.” It simply means that Russia is out of step with what everyone else knows, and has always known and acknowledged, about the outcome of the war. For about half a century following the War Russians did not need to worry about it, because they were hermetically sealed off from the rest of the world inside the Iron Curtain, and the wider intellectual world did not concern them. In the last couple of decades they have come face-to-face with it for the first time, and of all things they assume that the world is in a big conspiracy to “revise” something. Part of the outcome of World War II about which Russians deliberately choose to believe a heroic myth is that the Red Army liberated Eastern Europe. Absolutely nowhere that the Red Army trod did it bring liberty, not in Eastern Europe and not even in Russia itself. It simply replaced one terrible system of totalitarian oppression with another. There was no liberty anywhere in Eastern Europe until the collapse of Soviet control beginning from the late 1980s. Yes, the Red Army won victory, but victory and liberation are two entirely different and distinct things. Stalin was anything but a freedom fighter.
At a time when Latvia and the Baltic states to a lesser extent and the outgoing president of the Ukraine suggest nazis deserve recognition of status along with the real heros that won WWII I can understand what Medvedev is talking about. It is already bad enough in the west who think "Enemy at the gates" was a documentary rather than hollywood BS, and that according to "Saving Private Ryan" it was US forces on D-day that won the war... ignoring the fact that the US had the easy job on two beaches while the British and Canadians had the only German tank reserves in the region to face. Medvedev warns of rewriting history and Hollywood is most guilty of that I would think. Most thinking people of course write off such suggestions because it is only entertainment... but most young people who don't know any better think it is a history lesson.