Putin is no Hitler

That English history lessons consist of World War II and the Tudors has come back to bite us again. The obsessive focus on learning about the 1940s means there is one historical figure Vladimir Putin has been repeatedly compared to in recent days: Adolf Hitler. It’s an unhelpful comparison, to say the least.

From the Sun calling Putin ‘the Hitler of our age’ to Defence Secretary Ben Wallace’s ‘whiff of Munich’ remark, the build up to the war looms large in the British imagination. But while Putin is a nasty piece of work, he is not genocidal. And Hitler, unlike Putin, wasn’t armed with nuclear weapons. The motivations, intentions, and capabilities of both men bear little resemblance to one another. Even by the usual standards of British political debate, comparing opposition to no-fly zones or other forms of Western intervention with appeasement is a particularly unhelpful rhetorical tic. There is a desperate willingness to interpret Putin through the experience of opposing Hitler.