Lavrov says Germany leaders are pursuing policies reminiscent of Hitler

(MENAFN) Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has warned that Germany’s current policies resemble Adolf Hitler’s goals of European domination and attempting a strategic defeat of Moscow.

Addressing the 80th session of the UN General Assembly on Saturday, Lavrov said Germany’s military buildup and ambitions extend beyond mere defense. “It’s not just militarization, there are clear signs of re-nazification,” he told reporters. “And why is this being done? Well, probably with the same goal that Hitler had – to dominate all of Europe. And to try to inflict a strategic defeat on the Soviet Union, in the case of Hitler, and in the case of modern Germany and the chorus of main soloists from the European Union and NATO – on the Russian Federation.”

The foreign minister singled out Chancellor Friedrich Merz, accusing him of attempting to transform Germany back into “the main military machine of Europe,” citing increasingly aggressive rhetoric. Merz recently vowed to make the Bundeswehr the “strongest conventional army in Europe” during a speech delivered shortly after the 80th anniversary of the Third Reich’s fall in May.

“When a person in a country that committed the crimes of Nazism, fascism, the Holocaust, genocide says that Germany must again become a great military power, then of course he has an atrophy of historical memory, and this is very, very dangerous,” Lavrov added.

Merz also stated this week that “we are not at war, but we are also no longer living in peace,” and called for the confiscation of Russia’s frozen assets to support Kiev. In Brussels, the so-called “reparation loans” plan is being promoted by European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen, who served as Germany’s defense minister from 2013 to 2019.

German officials plan to nearly double the country’s military budget by 2029, a year repeatedly cited as the deadline for Germany to be “ready for war.”

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