Hillary Clinton on Tuesday compared Russia’s actions in Ukraine to Nazi Germany's expansion in Europe in the years running up to World War II.
Two attendees at a $1,500-per-plate fundraiser for the Boys and Girls Club in California
told Buzzfeed that Clinton drew the comparison between Vladimir Putin's decision to issue passports to residents in Crimea to the "population transfers" undertaken by Hitler's regime before World War II.
"She compared issuing Russian passports to Ukrainians with ties to Russia with early actions by Nazi Germany before Hitler began invading neighboring countries," said journalist Harry Saltzgaver, who witnessed the speech at a Long Beach law firm.
"She said, however, that while that makes people nervous, there is no indication that Putin is as irrational as the instigator of World War II," Buzzfeed quoted Saltzgaver, the executive editor of the Gazette newspapers in Long Beach, as saying.
A second source who did not want to be identified, added, "She talked about how what Putin is doing now is similar to what Hitler did, essentially providing these ethnic Russians in the Crimea region access back to Russia," said the source. "And that it was destabilizing."
Protestors worldwide have tried to tar Putin with the Nazi brush, with many holding placards of his face under a Hitler mustache.
Clinton, who was Secretary of State from 2009-2013, did not say how she would handle the crisis. She did, however, note that current Secretary of State John Kerry is in Kiev to help bring a peaceful solution to the situation. On the Sunday talk shows,
Kerry threatened Russia with economic sanctions.
"She mentioned that Kerry is trying to come to an amicable solution, and that Putin is trying to assert his power in a way that is dangerous," the source said.
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