Russian President Vladimir Putin in his article “Be Open Despite the Past”, timed to coincide with the 80th anniversary of the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, noted that the historic reconciliation of the Russian people and the Germans played a colossal role in the formation of a united Europe.
The text of the president’s article for the German weekly Die Zeit was published on the Kremlin’s website.
“I would like to emphasize that the historical reconciliation of our people and the Germans who lived both in the east and in the west of modern united Germany played a colossal role for the formation of such a Europe,” he said.