MOSCOW, November 4. /TASS/. The West is seeking to "cut the ground from under" Russia by distorting its history, but these attempts are doomed to failure, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Friday.
"Attempts are being continued to cut the ground from under us. Naturally, these attempts cannot change the past. They are doomed to failure. It is impossible to deprive the country of the victories won by our ancestors," he said at a meeting with historians and representatives of Russia’s traditional religions on the 10th anniversary of the reestablishment of the Russian Historical Society and the Russian Military Historical Society.
"When someone wants to deprive a state of its sovereignty and turn its citizens into vassals, they begin with rewriting the history of this state in a bid to deprive people of their roots, to erase their memory," Putin said, adding that such approaches lead to tragedies of nations. "Such attempts have been made against Russia and they never stop. Bt we thwarted them timely, since our country’s history and culture are the basis on national identity, our mentality, traditional values, and what is most important, they are the basis of Russian statehood," he stressed.
According to Putin, Russia’s position on preserving historic memory irritates some European countries. "It is a duty for the state, society and, naturally, historians to defend our true history, our heroes, to raise the quality of historic education," he added.