MOSCOW, December 24. /TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin has pointed to a stark contrast between Soviet leader Joseph Stalin’s actions and the attitude of other European leaders towards Adolf Hitler.

"Starting from 1934 there began to emerge a legal basis for collaboration of many European countries with Germany. An overwhelming majority of their leaders contacted Hitler personally and put their signatures to corresponding documents. Stalin, whatever attitude to him one may take, did not disgrace himself by meeting with Hitler in person. He never met him, while the top officials of the biggest European powers did that," Putin told the legislators.

Putin noted that in the archive documents there are "rather honest and frank evaluations," "there were decent and honest people who said outright what they thought of the world events."

Putin promised he would write about that in a history article he was currently working on.

"The Soviet Union did express its attitude to the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. It did so frankly, openly and straightforwardly. Nobody except us did this," Putin stated.