President Putin Calls Delivery Of Soviet Tanks To Strike Protests Inwaslowakia And Hungary Was A Mistake

Russian President Vladimir Putin. (Source: Kremlin)

JAKARTA - Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday said the Soviet Union's decision to send tanks to Hungary and Czechoslovakia to crush insurgency during the Cold War in the two countries was a mistake.

"It was a mistake," President Putin said, when asked about Russia's perception of colonial power, regarding Moscow's decision to send tanks to Budapest in 1956 and to Prague in 1968.

"It is not true to do anything in foreign policy that harms the interests of others," President Putin, who in February 2022 sent tens of thousands of troops to Ukraine, sparking Europe's biggest land war since World War Two.

President Putin added that the United States made the same mistake as the Soviet Union. He said Washington "has no friends, only interests".

The 1956 Hungarian uprising was crushed by tanks and Soviet troops. At least 2,600 Hungarians and 600 Soviet soldiers were killed in the fighting.

Meanwhile, the 1968 Prague Spring ended when troops of the Soviet-led Warsaw Pact stormed the Czech Socialist Republic. About 137 Czechs and Slovakians died as a result of the invasion, according to Czech historian.