Hitler comments "unacceptable"

Speaking to international press on the sidelines of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, Russian President Vladimir Putin accused Britain's Prince Charles of "unacceptable and unroyal behavior" in comparing him to Adolf Hitler.

Putin said he hadn't heard the comment allegedly made by the prince to a woman who fled Poland in World War Two.

The Russian leader then asked reporters to pass on a message to Prince Charles and British Prime Minister David Cameron.

"I have not heard this remark. If (it was said), then it is unacceptable. I think he himself realises that. He is a well-brought-up person. I know him and other members of the royal family personally. This is not royal behavior. But I have got used to all kinds of things over the years," said Putin.

Soviet revival 'media weapon of war'

President Putin also turned to other, pressing issues in St. Petersburg on Saturday.

He said he didn't expect a new Cold War over the crisis in Ukraine and he also denied trying to revive the Soviet Union following Russia's annexation of Crimea.

On the eve of Ukraine's presidential election, Putin instead blamed the violence and political instability in the country on the West, and said he hoped Europe and the US were ready for compromise.

"I would not like to think this is the start of a new Cold War. It is in no one's interest and I think it will not happen," he said to journalists in a palace outside Russia's former imperial capital.

Putin also denied that plans to form a Russia-led trading bloc with two former Soviet republics, Kazakhstan and Belarus, meant he wanted to rebuild part of the Soviet Union that collapsed in 1991.

"They try to stick this label on us - a label that we are trying to restore an empire, the Soviet Union, make everyone subordinate. This absolutely does not correspond to reality," he said. "It is a media weapon of war."

lw/tj (AP, AFP, Reuters)