On March 30 the Federation Council discussed with senators and ministerial representatives the “clash over history” and the “war of memory” in the context of the confrontation between Russia and the West.
At this discussion, former Culture Minister Vladimir Medinsky, Chairman of the Russian Military Historical Society and author of the school history textbook, stated that “Western forces” are “brainwashing” Russians. In his opinion, the imposition of Western values will result in Russians voluntarily wishing to “give back the Kurils, Kaliningrad, Karelia, and Vyborg,” Kommersant reported.
Medinsky also invited the audience to consider “how it happened that the Great Russian lands ended up in the territory of Ukraine, Kazakhstan, and even Belarus.”
Putin’s press secretary Dmitry Peskov said that Medinsky’s comments had nothing to do with the presidential administration’s agenda, according to the Interfax news agency.
According to him, no such issue is on the agenda. He also called the statements of Putin’s aide “scholarly pursuits”.
Russia currently includes the land which used to be part of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and in 1918 and 1919 was part of the Belarusian People’s Republic and Soviet Belarus.
belsat.eu
