New York, NY, May 10, 2007 … The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) today said that Russian President Vladimir Putin had overstepped when, in a speech commemorating the Allied victory in World War II, he compared current conflicts with the horrors carried out by the Nazi Third Reich.

The following is the text of a letter sent today to Mr. Putin from Glen S. Lewy, ADL National Chair and Abraham H. Foxman, ADL National Director:

We are writing to express our deep concern over your reference to the Third Reich in the speech you delivered in Red Square yesterday commemorating the 62nd anniversary of the Allied victory in World War II.
 
In your speech you powerfully described the horrible impact of the Nazi drive to dominate the world by imposing its fascist ideology through military conquest and the systematic industrialized extermination of six million Jews and millions of others. 
 
These acts had no precedent in history and the depths of its evil have no parallel in the world today.  Attempts to draw comparisons between the complex and varied conflicts we face today and the horrors of the Nazi regime carried out by the Third Reich diminish the very point you made, demean the memory of those who perished and suffered at the hands of the Nazis and should have no place in the discourse among nations.
 
Finally, we share your belief that "common responsibility" and the combined efforts of good people are among the most important ingredients necessary to prevent any future tragedy of the magnitude of the destruction visited on the world by the Nazi regime.

The Anti-Defamation League, founded in 1913, is the world's leading organization fighting anti-Semitism through programs and services that counteract hatred, prejudice and bigotry.