Soviet Union should not have sent tanks into Hungary, Czechoslovakia: Vladimir Putin

The Soviet Union made the error of sending tanks into Hungary and Czechoslovakia to put down large-scale rallies during the Cold War, according to Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday. “It was a mistake,” Putin said when asked about perceptions of Russia as a colonial power due to Moscow’s decision to send tanks into Budapest in 1956 and into Prague in 1968. “It is not right to do anything in foreign policy that harms the interests of other peoples,” said Putin, who in 2022 sent tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine, triggering the biggest land war in Europe since World War Two. According to Putin, the United States (US) is committing the same mistakes that the Soviet Union did. He said Washington had “no friends, only interests”. Soviet tanks and troops destroyed the 1956 Hungarian Uprising. In the conflict, at least 2,600 Hungarians and 600 Soviet soldiers perished. When Warsaw Pact forces led by the Soviet Union invaded the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic, the 1968 Prague Spring came to an end. Czech historians estimate that the invasion cost the lives of about 137 Czechs and Slovaks. (With agency inputs)