Russia has lodged a furious protest with Britain after Prince Charles reportedly compared President Vladimir Putin to Adolf Hitler, with Moscow saying the comments were unworthy of a king-in-waiting.
The Russian deputy ambassador to London went to the Foreign Office for urgent talks on Thursday, following the reported remarks by the heir to the throne during a trip to Canada.
Charles made the apparently unguarded comment, which drew a parallel between Hitler and Putin's actions in Ukraine, during a private conversation with a Polish-born woman on a trip to a museum.
"If these words were really said, then undoubtedly they are not worthy of a future British monarch," foreign ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich said in Moscow.
"We have requested an official explanation from British authorities over the statements."
The Russian embassy in London issued a separate statement saying deputy ambassador Alexander Kramarenko would raise the "outrageous remarks made by Prince Charles in Canada" in his meeting.
Britain's Foreign Office confirmed to AFP later that the talks had started and that they expected to issue a statement later.
The Prince's office, Clarence House, declined to comment on the Russian reaction when contacted by AFP.
But on Wednesday it said that Charles "would not seek to make a public political statement during a private conversation".
The comments by Charles to the Polish woman, who had fled the Nazis as a child, were reported by the Daily Mail on Wednesday.
"I had finished showing him the exhibit and talked with him about my own family background and how I came to Canada," 78-year-old Marienne Ferguson told the newspaper.
"The prince then said: 'And now Putin is doing just about the same as Hitler'."
Lukashevich slammed Western media for using Charles's reported words in what he said was a propaganda campaign targeting Russia.
"We consider it is unacceptable, disgusting and low that Western media are using members of the British royal family to unroll a propaganda campaign against Russia on a contentious international issue like the situation in Ukraine," he said.
The row threatens to cast a shadow over commemorations in France to mark the 70th anniversary of D-Day on June 6, which both Charles and Putin are due to attend.
Share
