Asked about Moscow’s plans for a statue of Stalin, he pointed to Oliver Cromwell, the leader of the Parliamentarian side in the seventeenth-century English Civil War, and asked: “What’s the real difference between Cromwell and Stalin?” He then answered his own question: “None whatsoever,” and went on to describe Cromwell as a “cunning fellow” who “played a very ambiguous role in Britain’s history.”
在上个月的一次新闻发布会上，俄罗斯总理普京试图做出回答。在被问及莫斯科修建斯大林像的问题时，他搬出十七世纪英国内战议会派领袖克伦威尔，反问：“克伦威尔和斯大林的真正区别在哪里？”接着他又自问自答：“哪里都没有。”然后又把克伦威尔说成是“狡猾的人”，“在英国历史上扮演了一个模糊不清的角色。”（英国下议院大门外竖立着一座克伦威尔像。）