Putin: Prince Charles comments ‘not what monarchs do’

President Putin’s response came just days after the prince was reported to have made the remark in a private conversation during his visit to Canada.

The Russian president was asked for his response during an interview with the world’s leading news agencies in St Petersburg.

Mr Putin said: “It reminds me of a good proverb: ‘You are angry. That means you are wrong.'”

In a direct personal message to the prince, he added: “Give my words to Prince Charles. He has been to our country more than once, if he made such a comparison, it is unacceptable and I am sure he understands that as a man of manners.”

Give my words to Prince Charles… It is unacceptable… This is not what monarchs do. Vladimir Putin

Mr Putin added: “I met him personally, as well as other members of the royal family. This is not what monarchs do. But over the past few years we have seen so much, nothing surprises me any longer.”

Drawing comparisons to Hitler

Charles’s comments were reportedly made to Canadian museum volunteer Marianne Ferguson, 78, after she told him how her Jewish family fled the Nazi occupation of Danzig at the outset of the Second World War, and appeared to draw a parallel with Russia’s annexation of the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea in March.

The Russian president made clear that he would not allow the disapproval of prominent international figures such as the Prince of Wales to influence his actions in the current crisis in Ukraine.

Read more: Was it fair to compare Putin to Hitler? 

“I will be guided not by what they say about me anywhere,” he said. “I will only be guided by the interests of the Russian people, and I hope our colleagues in Great Britain will keep that in mind and will always remember that when finding solutions to any issues, we are always guided by international law and its norms.”

Britain has led international calls for sanctions against Russia in response to its actions in Crimea, and last week Prime Minister David Cameron warned that the UK may have to prepare for “a very different long-term relationship with Russia” if Moscow failed to take action to de-escalate the crisis.

But Mr Putin indicated that he did not regard the current differences as the start of a long-lasting rift in UK-Russian relations, and said he anticipated a return to “good co-operation” if the UK decided to be guided by its own “national interests”.

In the interview in St Petersburg, Mr Putin also said Russia would “work with” the new authorities in Ukraine after Sunday’s election, and he added that he did not believe the situation would be a new “Cold War”.