Comparative Essay Example: Putin and Hitler

Comparisons of Putin to Hitler aren't anything new. After the invasion of Georgia, former US national security adviser, Zbigniew Brzeziński, compared Putin's tactics to Hitler much like Jonathan Katz did after Putin's invasion of Ukraine. This comparison has been kept alive for about 2 decades because it holds much truth to it. From Russia’s strategy prior to invading Ukraine to the invasion itself,  Russia and Nazi Germany share eerie similarties. In fact both situations as a whole are extremely similar. 

From the 1930s -1940s countries worldwide tried to keep themselves as far away from the war as possible. They understood getting involved would be deadly, economically devastating, and cause internal problems. For a long time the United States didn't join the war because of the large isolationist population. “Isolationists believed that World War II was ultimately a dispute between foreign nations and that the United States had no good reason to get involved(Source)”. Today countries don't want to aid Ukraine because of the same reasons but also because they don't want to choose a side in a divided world. Putin says all countries that try to aid Ukraine will face serious repercussions, making it clear that countries who help Ukraine are unfriendly towards Russia, thus being unfriendly to Russian allies which most countries cannot afford to be. Putin hints that these repercussions can be as big as a nuclear attack or an outright invasion. Similarly, countries were hesitant to join the war in world war 2 because of the repercussions they faced from Hitler. If countries wanted to join the war efforts they understood invasion from Hitler was a huge possibility. Unlike Putin, however, Hitler never directly stated the consequences for countries joining the war. Similarities between Putin and Hitler don't end here. 

The way the world responded to Hitler is similar to the way the world responded to Putin. European leaders during world war two tried to use appeasement to make Hitler happy in hopes to stop his aggression. “Germany, Italy, Great Britain, and France sign the Munich agreement, by which Czechoslovakia must surrender its border regions and defenses (the so-called Sudeten region) to Nazi Germany (Source). This essentially shows how European leaders gave up the Sudetenland without a fight  in order to appease Hitler in hopes to stop another world war. This obviously didn't work. History repeated itself just 64 years later. In 2009 NATO essentially let Russia invade Georgia. In response NATO allies placed sanctions on Russia, instead of taking military action, in hopes Russia would stop its aggression. However just like Hitler, these sanctions did little to nothing on Russian aggression and just 13 years later Russia is displaying the same aggression but towards Ukraine while the West once again continues to use sanctions to avoid all out war. All appeasement does is let the aggressive country have a voice. If NATO continues to use appeasement with Putin, World War 3 is a serious possibility. 

NATO alone does not scare Putin anymore. As time progresses, Putin seems to test his power. From the invasion of Georgia to the annexation of Crimea, Putin has faced little to no repercussions from NATO besides sanctions. “Prior to this year's full-scale invasion, Putin had his military invade Georgia in 2008. Six years later, they seized Crimea from the Ukrainians without a fight and actively supported separatists in the Donbas region of Ukraine (Source).” This shows how Putin, overtime, began testing his power to learn what he can and cannot do. Currently, Putin is learning he can invade non-NATO countries without any serious military repercussions. After Putin's invasion of Ukraine he probably will look to invade countries like Moldova, Finland, and Sweden knowing the West wont do anything. It is clear Putin has motives to regain old Soviet territory back much like how Hitler wanted to unify all Germans. “Putin has said the collapse of the Soviet Union was one of the greatest disasters of modern history (source).” After invading non NATO countries, there is a serious possibility he goes after NATO countries who were previously part of the USSR. If this is the case World War Three is a guarantee.