The Russian Foreign Ministry shared a video justifying the signing of the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact between the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany back in 1939 to mark its anniversary. The video makes no mention of the MRP secret protocols used to divide Europe into spheres of influence, informs Estonian broadcaster ERR.
The Russian Foreign Ministry’s Twitter account was used to share a video that interprets the geopolitical situation before World War II.
The video starts with the non–aggression pact signed between the Soviet People’s Commissar Vyacheslav Molotov and the Foreign Minister of Nazi Germany Joachim von Ribbentrop.
The short text and video explains the pact on its English and Russian Twitter pages and on Telegram.
? Today marks 83 years since the signing of the Treaty of Non-Aggression between Germany and the USSR.
? Watch our retrospective video for information on the state of affairs in Europe prior to the signing of this document.
? https://t.co/0oj5eo5QbC pic.twitter.com/mxyonaFXDt
— MFA Russia ?? (@mfa_russia) August 23, 2022
The video suggests many others European states signed non–aggression pacts with Nazi Germany and quotes wartime UK Prime Minister Winston Churchill.
Neither the post nor the accompanying video mention the pact’s secret protocols in which Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union carved Europe into spheres of influence.
According to the latter, Finland, Estonia, Latvia and Eastern Poland and Bessarabia (then part of the Kingdom of Romania) were to belong in the Soviet influence sphere. Lithuania and Western Poland were to be under German influence.
The Federal Republic of Germany and the USSR declared the pact void from the moment it was signed in 1989. For decades leading up to that point, the Soviet Union refused to acknowledge the existence of the secret protocols.
The European Parliament has referred to the pact as the reason WWII broke out in a resolution from 2019.
The Molotov Ribbentrop Pact was signed on August 23, 1939.
Nazi Germany invaded Poland in the September of that year, which moment is considered the start of WWII. Soviet forces crossed the Polish border from the other side on September 17.
On September 22, Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union held a joint military parade in Brest–Litovsk.
The pact between the two totalitarian states has in the past been justified by Russian President Vladimir Putin.