Labour MP
Mike Gapes calls for prince to 'abdicate and stand for election' if he wants to
make controversial statements
theguardian.com,
Matthew Weaver, Rowena Mason and agencies, Wednesday 21 May 2014
Prince Charles is facing a call for his abdication and a frosty response in Moscow after reportedly comparing Vladimir Putin to Adolf Hitler over Russia's annexation of Crimea.
Prince Charles (right) pictured with the Russian president Vladimir Putin in 2003. Photograph: Tim Ockenden/PA |
Prince Charles is facing a call for his abdication and a frosty response in Moscow after reportedly comparing Vladimir Putin to Adolf Hitler over Russia's annexation of Crimea.
Charles
blundered into the international crisis over Russia's actions in Ukraine during
a tour of Canada, when he spoke to a woman who fled the Nazis and lost family
members during the Holocaust.
According
to the Daily Mail, the prince compared the Russian president to the Nazi leader
when talking to Marienne Ferguson, a museum volunteer who moved to Canada with
her Jewish family when she was just 13. "Now Putin is doing just about the same as Hitler," Charles is reported to have said.
Charles's
remarks have been criticised across the political spectrum in Britain: the
Labour MP Mike Gapes called for his abdication, while the outspoken Ukip
leader, Nigel Farage, said the prince was wrong to get involved.
Putin's
spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, pointedly refused to discuss the issue when
approached by journalists. But the popular Russian daily Moskovskij Komsomolets
(MK) said Charles's remarks risked "triggering an international scandal".
MK said
Charles's comments risked complicating already "clouded" UK-Russian
relations.
Peskov
initially said he knew nothing about the comments, according to Sky News. He
later told the BBC's Moscow correspondent, Steve Rosenberg, the Kremlin was
"not commenting right now" on the story.
Anti-Russia
activists in Ukraine praised Charles's remarks. "Good old Charley,"commented one contributor to the Facebook page of Euromaidan, which helped
organise the protests in the Ukrainian capital Kiev that led to the ousting of
the pro-Russia president Viktor Yanukovych.
Labour MP
Gapes, a current member and former chairman of the House of Commons foreign
affairs committee, said the prince should have kept his views private. The
Ilford South MP tweeted: "If Prince Charles wants to make controversial
statements on national or international issues, he should abdicate and stand
for election.
Ukip's
Farage is reported to have said: "There are times when it might be better
for Prince Charles not to get involved in things like this."
Britain's
former ambassador to Russia, Sir Tony Brenton, said it was a "grotesque
exaggeration" to compare Russia's actions in Crimea with those of the
Nazis. But he said Charles' intervention could help Russia reconsider its
policy in Ukraine.
Speaking to
BBC News, Brenton said: "It will be picked up in public circles in Russia
.. The Russians have taken over Crimea, they are debating with themselves about
where to go next. The fact that they have generated the impression in some
minds that they are behaving a bit as Hitler behaved, while I think is a false
judgement, will help [them] to reconsider a little bit."
Brenton
added: "Hitler is the ultimate ogre in Russian public opinion ... The fact
that Russian policy is generating these sort of reactions ought to have a
calming effect there."
Brenton who
served as ambassador to Moscow between 2004 and 2008 added: "Russia is
having quite a nationalist moment, but the judgment that Putin is behaving like
Hitler, is very mistaken. The annexation of Crimea was entirely illegal and
wrong but to say that that leads us in the direction of a revanchist Russia -
the bear being on the prowl again - is a grotesque exaggeration."
Deputy
prime minister, Nick Clegg, said Charles was "free to express
himself".
Speaking to
BBC Breakfast, Clegg said: "I have never been of this view that if you are
a member of the royal family somehow you have to enter into some Trappist vow
of silence. I think he is entitled to his views. But I don't know whether those
were his views because I just don't think providing a running commentary on
what were private conversations is useful to anybody.
"I
don't know exactly what he did or didn't say in that conversation because he
thought it was a private conversation," Clegg added.
Asked if he
agreed there were parallels to be drawn, he said: "I'm not going to start
comparing one period of European history to another.
"People
can make different comparisons from different periods of history if they wish.
All I would say is that right now I think the behaviour of Putin is not only
menacing to Ukraine but it is very destabilising for Europe more generally.
"That
is why we continue to say to the Russians, continue to say to Vladimir Putin:
step back, de-escalate. It's not in Russia's interests, let alone anybody
else's, to continue ratcheting up this tension."
The
Conservative party chairman, Grant Shapps, told BBC Radio Berkshire that it was
not the convention for politicians to comment on remarks made by the royal
family. "There's a long-held convention that royals have the opportunity
to comment and they do. Usually politicians don't comment on what the royals
are saying. People can hear what someone has said; it stands on its own."
He added:
"It is not for ministers to comment on what our royals say. They can
perfectly well express their opinions, as Prince Charles has done in this case.
One of the important lesson from the second world war is to make sure that
there is a proper response to what happens."
A
spokesperson for Clarence House said: "We would not comment on private
conversations. It was a private conversation at a reception for war
veterans."
The Daily
Mail reported that Ferguson said: "'I had finished showing him the exhibit
and talked with him about my own family background and how I came to Canada.
The prince then said 'And now Putin is doing just about the same as
Hitler'."
"I
must say that I agree with him and am sure a lot of people do. I was very
surprised that he made the comment as I know they [members of the royal family]
aren't meant to say these things but it was very heartfelt and honest."
The
comments came just over a fortnight before Charles is due to meet Putin at the
commemorations of the 70th anniversary of the D-Day landings in Normandy on 6
June. He and the duchess are currently on a four-day tour of Canada.
A recent
visit to Estonia by the prince's youngest son, Harry, was viewed by many
commentators as a sign of western support amid fears of a resurgent Russia; the
region has seen a rise in tensions since the crisis in Ukraine. Harry also met
with Estonian, British and US service personnel involved a major Nato training
exercise.
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