No appeasement toward Russia, Lithuania says
Vilnius - Standing by in Georgia would mean following the scenario that allowed Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler to conquer Europe, Lithuanian President Valdas Adamkus said on Tuesday.
"We cannot allow a second Munich," Adamkus said, referring to the Munich Conference in 1938 when France, Great Britain and Italy permitted annexation of part of Czechoslovakia.
"Then, countries appeased Hitler and it led to World War II, to a colossal tragedy and millions of lost human lives," he told Lithuanian radio.
Adamkus spoke hours before he and the presidents of Poland, Ukraine, Latvia and Estonia headed to Georgia to offer their support after Russia's military assault on the Caucasus nation.
The Baltics - Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia - were annexed by the Soviet Union during World War II. Independent since the end of the Cold War, they are among the fiercest critics of Moscow's intervention on behalf of Russian separatist regions of Georgia. (dpa)
