Putin wrote an article about the Second World War, in which he called the joining of the Baltic countries to the USSR legitimate

Vladimir Putin wrote the article “Real lessons of the 75th anniversary of World War II” for the American publication The National Interest. In it, he discusses the premises and consequences of the war.

In particular, the Russian president wrote that the annexation of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia to the USSR as part of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact was legal and occurred “with the consent of the elected authorities”. “This corresponded to international and state law of that time,” Putin wrote. According to him, it was precisely due to the fact that the Baltic republics became part of the USSR, they managed to preserve their state bodies and language.

Putin also indicated that the Soviet invasion of Poland was justified by “unprofitable strategic positions” before the “inevitable war with the Nazis”. If the invasions did not occur, “millions of people of different nationalities, including Jews living near Brest and Grodno, Przemysl, Lvov and Vilnius, would remain to die of the hands of the Nazis and their local accomplices - anti -Semites and radical nationalists.”

In addition, Putin writes that in September 1939, the Soviet leadership "had the opportunity to push the western borders of the USSR even further to the west, up to Warsaw, but decided not to do this."

The National Interest is an American magazine, which is published by the Center for National Interests. The president of the center, as well as the publisher of the magazine, is Dmitry Sims. He appeared in the report of the US special prosecutor Robert Muller about Russia's intervention in the American elections.