MOSCOW, May 28. /TASS/. Europeans are being convinced of the militarization need because of the "threat from the East," similar to Nazi Germany shortly before World War II. Sensible politicians recognize the danger of this course, but repression against them is growing, Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) Director Sergey Naryshkin said.
"European citizens are being persuaded of the need for militarization, scaring them with an imaginary threat from the East. By the way, Hitler acted in the same way on the eve of World War II," he said at an international meeting of senior security officials.
"The European ruling groups, accustomed to living under American tutelage, seem to have become unaccustomed to strategic thinking. The leadership of the European Union and the leading European states today, unfortunately, continues to act in the spirit of neocolonial inertia."
He pointed out that the Ukrainian crisis is a vivid manifestation of this. "Europe persists in trying to use Ukraine as a battering ram against Russia and at the same time arming itself," he said.
"By the way, sensible politicians in Europe also understand the danger of such a course for the entire continent. Their voices are getting louder, but repression against them by the so-called liberal, but in fact totalitarian, democracy is also on the rise."
"This is evidenced, in particular, by the crisis situation around the presidential elections in Romania, the persecution of the National Rally in France and the Alternative for Germany in Germany."