The Kremlin's pushback did nothing to stem the outrage. Now, many posts on blogs and social media mention the role of Gazprom — the state-controlled Russian natural gas company that sponsors Nikolai's school and, along with its German partner Wintershall, organized the Berlin trip — and Rosneft, the state-owned oil giant for which the boy's father works as a security executive.
These are more than companies: They are pillars of the Putin regime, the main tools of its trade policy, the main conduits of Russia's economic influence on Europe and China. The wealth of Novy Urengoy residents, many of whom work for Gazprom and Rosneft, is the envy of the rest of Russia.
Some Russians responded angrily to Peskov himself. A typical tweet: "On our part, this isn't persecution but the people's opinion. It must be heard so that [Nikolai] and others like him find out what country they live in."
Putin and his team did their best to build up a patriotic frenzy after the 2014 Crimea annexation. They harnessed Russian nationalist resentments for a while by fueling rebellion in eastern Ukraine.
They used World War II imagery to back up their claims to a moral high ground in a growing conflict in the West. But this brand of patriotism is a double-edged sword. In reality, nothing binds Putin's kleptocratic, oil-fed regime to the thin-skinned Russian nationalist's worldview.
What would we say about an American student who wrote sympathetically about Nazis? You’d be ok with that?
The Nazi’s totally back stabbed the Russians and it’s a damn good thing they were stupid enough to do it, otherwise Europe at minimum would be under German / Russian rule.
America would not be the super power now that’s for sure, the world would be a way worse place.
I can’t believe this kid didn’t know his speech would piss people off. He had to know.
Listen to the whole speech of the student. His comment was actually picked out of cotext to make it look like he is for the Nazi.
That’s one crappy blogger and a bunch of idiots who didn’t verify the whole thing before jumping on the boy.
We have a similar bunch here jumping on Putin as being for the Soviet based on his remarks about dissolution of Soviet Union picked out of context the same way.
One thing is important in your post and it is a comment of the Kremlin spokesman which is very reasonable.
What do you want to prove with this story? Yes, Russia has its idiots too.
You do realize that the Moscow Times is associated with Soros, right?
Never mentioned in any Russian history is just how happy Old Joe was to go strolling down the garden path with Old Adolph, invading Poland, three weeks after Nazi Germany did most of the heavy lifting, carving up the Baltic States, invading Finland and Old Joe sitting fat and sassy in the Kremlin while the Luftwaffe was pounding London into dust every night during the winter of 1940/41. Tough sh!t for the Russkies.
Who killed more Russians? Hitler or Stalin?
The question is not as obvious as you would think.