VLADIMIR Putin wrote Britain and the US out of the history of the Second World War yesterday by claiming Russia stood "alone" in defeating the Nazis.
The Kremlin leader changed the prepared text of his annual Victory Day speech as he addressed 12,000 troops at a parade in Moscow.
Earlier tanks and missile launchers rolled through Red Square on the most sacred day in the Russian calendar, marking the German surrender in 1945.
His original text in the official Kremlin transcript described how the Soviet people were “united” in the fight against Hitler.
But he changed “united” to twice use the word “alone”, significantly altering the meaning of the passage.
Putin told the massed troops and watching foreign diplomats: “We shall always remember that this noble feat was committed precisely by the Soviet people.
“At the most difficult time of war, in decisive battles which determined the outcome of the battle against Fascism, our people was alone – alone in the laborious, heroic and sacrificial path towards victory.”
The earlier version of the speech used the word "yedin" (united) but he changed it to "odin" (alone).
Some observers claimed Putin misspoke, stumbling over the two similar sounding words.
But others said he appeared to emphasise the word “alone” by using it twice.
It came amid the highest tensions between Russia and Nato allies since the end of the Cold War.
BBC Monitoring reported: “One word in the speech delivered by President Vladimir Putin at the Victory Day parade is different from the originally prepared script, significantly altering the meaning of one passage.”
Andrei Kolesnikov of the Carnegie Centre think tank in Moscow said: “Putin changed the wording during the speech, and it assumed a completely different meaning.
"The Soviet people were not alone.
“It (the USSR) assumed the main blow, the main burden of this victory, but there was a second front, after all.
“There were Britain and the US, to say nothing of the partisan movements in Yugoslavia, Italy and other countries.
“So this is simply unfair, unjust and – most importantly – incorrect.”
RE-WRITING HISTORY
The Soviet Union did not join the Second World War until June 1941, after Hitler invaded and opened a second front in the East.
In fact, Stalin had initially co-operated with Hitler, allowing him to invade Poland in 1939.
But propaganda from the time – repeated since – wiped their close ties from history.
Ahead of the Moscow parade, Russian space agency chief Dmitry Rogozin tweeted a Soviet-era image of Stalin striking Hitler, emphasising it was the USSR that provided the knockout blow to the Nazis.
Unusually, both Britain and the US were represented at the Moscow parade at deputy ambassador level amid strained relations.
Usually the wartime allies send full ambassadors, or government ministers, and in the past Britain has been represented by royalty.
Most EU countries were represented at ambassadorial level yesterday, although ex-Soviet states Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia all boycotted the military parade first established by Stalin in 1945.
Casualties in the war amounted to up to 27million for the USSR, including military and civilian deaths plus those caused by famine and disease.
It far eclipsed the toll suffered by the Soviet Union’s allies against the Nazis.
By comparison, Britain lost around 450,700 people and the US some 418,500.
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