MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Former Uruguayan President finds Putin very much like Hitler

The economic consequences of the coflict will hit Uruguay because of the price of oil and gas, Sanguinetti warned

Former two-time President of Uruguay Julio María Sanguinetti (1985-1990 / 1995-2000) Thursday said Russia's actions in Ukraine look “a lot like Hitler's initial invasions.” The Colorado Party leader added that there was “no possible historical justification to relativize the seriousness of the episode.”

“Putin until recently said he was not going to invade, suddenly he does; it is very similar to the initial invasions of Hitler when Second World War broke out,” the 86-year-old Colorado Party leader pointed out.

In an interview with Montevideo's daily El País, Sanguinetti likened Putin's military decisions to Adolf Hitler's invasion of Poland in 1939.

Sanguinetti's statements were in line with those of Brazil's Vice President Hamilton Mourao, who likened the attitude of Western powers regarding Russian leader Vladimir Putin with that of Great Britain in 1938 towards the German Führer.

Read also: Brazilian gov't “concerned” but Bolsonaro stays mum regarding Ukraine

The Colorado Party Thursday released a statement condemning Vladimir Putin's decisions.

“There is no possible historical justification to relativize the seriousness of the episode. Our country, the president (Luis Lacalle Pou) and the Foreign Ministry issued clear expressions of condemnation and we support them. Uruguay, with its democratic tradition, cannot connect an aggression of this nature with a violation of international law by a Russia that seems to have returned to the times of the czars,” Sanguinetti added.

He was also critical of Uruguay's leftwing parties which have not raised their voices against Russia's onslaught against Ukraine.

“Our country is a democracy and all the political parties that are under the institutional scenario proclaim ourselves democrats, and we are. Unfortunately, every so often some people come out thinking that Cuba and Venezuela are democracies,“ Sanguinetti went on.

Thanks to that misconception, people think that ”an autocracy with a czarist tone can be something that resembles the left,“ he added.

”It is incredible that the satrapies of Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela that hurt Latin America express themselves. The truth is that we are not surprised that they do. We also have to mark it as such,” the former head of state elaborated.

In addition to the humanitarian tragedy, Sanguinetti also foresaw the economic consequences of the conflict would hit Uruguay because the “price of oil and gas is going to go through the roof.”

However, Sanguinetti was hopeful “that the paths of peace have so far failed can be found.”