Russian nationalism is a mortal threat to the world and the West must do to Moscow what was once done to Nazi Germany, Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki wrote in an opinion piece published by Britain’s Telegraph newspaper on Tuesday. He left out the part that ‘denazification’ of Germany came after its military defeat but said “deputinization” of Russia must start “immediately”, warning that the Western “soul” would be in peril otherwise.
Morawiecki is one of the most vocal critics of Russia and President Putin, whom he has compared to Nazi leader Adolf Hitler and Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin on many occasions. The new article made the same equation, but focused on the brand of Russian nationalism that, according to Morawiecki, Moscow uses as the rationale to pursue malign and highly dangerous policies.
The Polish official has a grim view of the Russian worldview, he explained. The so-called “Russian world” is an imperialist ideology, “the equivalent of 20th-century communism and Nazism”, he insisted, “through which Russia justifies invented rights and privileges for its country.”