Putin: sending Soviet tanks into Hungary and Czechoslovakia was a mistake

Russian President Vladimir Putin listens to a report presentation on the development of Russia's far eastern regions held via a video link in Vladivostok, Russia, September 11, 2023. A board reads: "Eastern Economic Forum". Sputnik/Vyacheslav Prokofyev/Pool via REUTERS ATTENTION EDITORS - THIS IMAGE WAS PROVIDED BY A THIRD PARTY.

VLADIVOSTOK, Russia (Reuters) -Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday that the Soviet Union's decision to send tanks into Hungary and Czechoslovakia to crush mass protests during the Cold War was a mistake.

"It was a mistake," Putin said when asked about perceptions of Russia as a colonial power due to Moscow's decision to send tanks into Budapest in 1956 and into Prague in 1968.