Denial of Soviet occupation

Denial of Soviet occupation is the concept of denying Soviet occupation of countries. The concept is the official position of the Soviet Union, and its legal sucessor, the Russian Federation.

Quotations

 * Saying that USSR had occupied the Baltic states is absurd and nonsense. One can not occupy something that already belongs to him.
 * Russian Federation's foreign minister Sergei Ivanov, May 7 2005, in an address to Red Army veterans.


 * It is just another inadequate action of the President. What occupation?  This is absurd. [...] Communists will use all influence on the parliamentary majority to prevent opening of such museum.
 * Oleksandr Golub, of the Communist Party of Ukraine, March 2 2007, commenting on president Yushchenko's initiative on opening an occupation museum in Ukraine.


 * [having explained how with MRP, Germany had "given back" Estonian territory to the Soviet Union in 1939] This means that if in 1939 the Baltic countries had joined the Soviet Union, then in 1945 the Soviet Union could not have occupied them, because they were already part of the Soviet Union.
 * Russian Federation's president Vladimir Putin, undated news conference in 2005


 * There was no occupation. There were agreements at the time with the legitimately elected authorities in the Baltic countries.
 * Kremlin's European affairs chief Sergei Yastrzhembsky


 * Now, therefore, be it
 * Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate concurring), That it is the sense of Congress that the Government of the Russian Federation should issue a clear and unambiguous statement of admission and condemnation of the illegal occupation and annexation by the Soviet Union from 1940 to 1991 of the Baltic countries of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, the consequence of which will be a significant increase in good will among the affected peoples and enhanced regional stability.
 * United States House of Representatives, July 25 2005: