Putin follows policy of Stalin, who organized Holodomor in Ukraine - Timothy Snyder

Yale University Professor Timothy Snyder said this during a special event of the Kyiv Security Forum, founded by Arseniy Yatsenyuk's Open Ukraine Foundation.

He noted that the destruction of the dam in Nova Kakhovka, mining of Ukrainian territory, deliberate destruction of ports, ships, and grain storage facilities are all done by Russia to put pressure on Ukrainians.

"President Putin is trying to demonstrate his control over Ukraine, and so he is announcing to the leaders of Africa and Asia that he is now the master of food. That he now has the power over hunger. That he will decide who lives and who dies. Which, of course, is a very direct echo of the 1930s and Stalin's policy," Timothy Snyder emphasized.

In his opinion, Putin's policy is based on confidence in the Soviet past.

"He is sure that Ukraine did not exist, does not exist and cannot exist, and therefore everything that is done against Ukrainians must be justified. Just as Stalin and the Stalinists were sure that there was one certain future, one certain communism, a certain Soviet Union, and therefore everything that was done in Ukraine was somehow justified," the historian said.

Timothy Snyder also noted that Stalin's Holodomor, which led to the deaths of millions of Ukrainians "who should not have died," was at the root of the creation of a large-scale system of lies that today's Russia continues to use.