Putin Admits Soviet Tank Deployments in Hungary and Czechoslovakia Were Mistakes

Russian President Vladimir Putin admitted that the Soviet Union's decision to send tanks into Hungary in 1956 and Czechoslovakia in 1968 to suppress protests was a mistake. Putin stated that it is wrong to harm the interests of other peoples in foreign policy. He also criticized the United States, claiming that it was making similar mistakes as the Soviet Union and that Washington had "no friends, only interests." The Hungarian Uprising resulted in the deaths of at least 2,600 Hungarians and 600 Soviet troops, while the invasion of Czechoslovakia during the Prague Spring led to the deaths of around 137 Czechs and Slovaks.