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Russia yesterday lashed out at Prince Charles for comparing Vladimir Putin
to Hitler, publicly questioning his fitness to be king.
As controversy continued to rage around the world, Russia's foreign
ministry said his remarks were 'unacceptable, outrageous and dishonourable' and
'not worthy of a future British monarch'.
Russian diplomats insisted on meeting counterparts in London, where they
are understood to have demanded an official explanation.
But the frosty 40-minute talks at the Foreign Office in London ended
without agreement when British officials flatly refused to discuss Charles's
words – and instead attacked Russia for seeking to destabilise eastern
Ukraine.
'There was not a meeting of minds,' said one senior Whitehall source. As
the diplomatic crisis escalated:
Pro-Putin media in Russia linked the Royal Family to the Nazis in
retaliation for Charles's attack.
The Russian leader's biographer condemned the prince's remarks, insisting
he had no 'plans for world domination as Hitler openly did'.
Charles flew back to Britain at the end of his tour of Canada, where he
made his comments.
The Foreign Office said it had told Russian diplomats to stop interfering
in Ukraine's presidential elections taking place on Sunday.
A Russian newspaper close to the regime attacked Charles as 'a clearly
defined eccentric' whose remarks were in keeping with his 'royal
foolishness'.
The Daily Mail revealed earlier this week the prince's extraordinary
remarks as he met Second World War veterans and their families on his Canada
visit.
'And now Putin is doing just about the same as Hitler,' he told Marianne
Ferguson, a museum volunteer who fled to Canada with her Jewish family when she
was 13 and lost relatives in the Holocaust.
His remarks were seen as a reference to Putin's seizure of Crimea – the
first annexation by a major power in Europe since the end of the Second World
War in 1945.
Russia is now accused of sending undercover military forces into the Black
Sea and other areas of eastern Ukraine with large ethnic Russian populations,
using the pretext of protecting the Russian minority to take over more Ukrainian
territory.
Yesterday Sian MacLeod, a Foreign Office director covering Eastern Europe,
met Russian deputy ambassador Alexander Kramarenko at his request to discuss
Charles's attack.
The Whitehall source said: 'The Russians were not happy and said they
wanted to know what was going on. It is fair to say they were surprised by our
blanket refusal to engage with the subject of the private conversations of the
heir to the throne.
'Instead we said we would rather talk about a country one part of which
they have annexed and another part of which they are trying to destabilise.'
Russian foreign ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich questioned whether
Charles was fit to be king after his broadside comparing Putin and Hitler.
'If these words were really said, then undoubtedly they are not worthy of a
future British monarch,' he said. 'We have requested an official explanation
from British authorities over the statements.
'We view the use of the Western Press by members of the British Royal
Family to spread the propaganda campaign against Russia on a pressing issue –
that is, the situation in Ukraine – as unacceptable, outrageous and low.'
Another senior diplomatic official in Moscow, Maria Zakharova, said
sarcastically: 'Prince Charles and Prince Harry have a special kind of relations
with Nazism, I must say.'
That was apparently a reference to the sympathies of some members of the
Windsor family with Hitler in the 1930s and Harry's appearance at a fancy dress
party in a German uniform.
Meanwhile, the Russian embassy in London denounced the 'outrageous remarks
made by Prince Charles in Canada'.
Russian officials pointed out that the Soviets lost 26million defeating the
Nazis, with Churchill acknowledging it was the Russians 'who tore the guts out
of the German army'.
A commentary in newspaper Moskovsky Komsomolets said Charles was considered
by the British to be 'a clearly defined eccentric' who talked to trees and once
dismissed senior Chinese leaders as 'awful old waxworks'.
Privately, Charles has expressed his frustration that his trip has been
dominated by a remark that was not, to his mind, a political statement but an
expression of sympathy.
'The prince isn't angry per se, just very, very frustrated that something
which was in no way a political pronouncement on his behalf has overshadowed
everything the tour was trying to achieve,' said a royal source.
A Foreign Office spokesman said: 'People and governments across the world
strongly condemn Russia's actions in Ukraine including the illegal annexation of
Crimea, and the provoking of instability on the territory of a sovereign
neighbour.'
Yesterday, 14 Ukrainian soldiers were killed in a hail of mortar shells
fired by pro-Russian forces.
【新闻快讯】
据英国《每日邮报》5月22日报道，英国王储查尔斯近日访问加拿大时将俄罗斯总统普京比作希特勒，对此俄罗斯外交部21日予以猛烈抨击，称查尔斯的言论“离谱、低级、令人无法接受”，“他不配当英国国王。”
此前，查尔斯王子在私下谈话中告诉一位在纳粹大屠杀中失去亲人的女士，“普京目前在乌克兰的作为，犹如二战期间的希特勒。”此番评论是针对普京占取克里米亚。
俄罗斯外交官要求与英国外交部会面并对此事作出解释，但在40分钟的会谈中，英国官员拒绝对查尔斯王子的言论作出评价，并指责俄罗斯破坏乌克兰稳定。据英国政府人员透露：“会议未达成一致。”这件外交风波正在不断升级：
俄罗斯亲普京媒体因对查尔斯的言论不满而把英国王室比作纳粹组织。
普京传记作者谴责查尔斯王子的言论，并坚称普京“不像希特勒那样计划统治世界。”
查尔斯结束对加拿大的访问后飞回英国。
英国外交部称已警告俄罗斯停止干预乌克兰25日即将举行的总统大选。
一份亲俄政府的报纸攻击查尔斯为“怪人一枚”，并称他的言论与他的“皇室愚蠢”相一致。
俄罗斯外交部发言人卢卡舍维奇表示：“如果这些话是真的，那么毫无疑问，他未来不配当英国国王。”
对此，查尔斯王子私下表示，他的此番言论仅仅是为了表达同情，并非政治言论，自己也没想到此次访问完全被这场风波所主导，这令他非常沮丧。
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发表于 2016-7-10 18:04:13