Русская версияHe said the step later massively contributed to the disintegration of the pact whose activities were terminated in 1991.
"It is unpleasant to remember these anniversaries.
But we must do it in order not to repeat past mistakes," Russian news agency Interfax quoted Mironov as saying.
The Soviet-led invasion on August 21, 1968 was aimed to crush the communist-led reform movement in the country. The Soviet occupying forces stayed in then Czechoslovakia until 1991.
Mironov compared the invasion of Czechoslovakia 40 years ago with its liberation from the Nazi regime in 1945.
"Unlike in May 1945, no one welcomed Soviet tanks in Prague in August 1968," he said.
"Tanks then (in 1968) were not fighting an enemy, but a political idea, and this is a sign of weakness," Mironov said.
He said the violence only evoked the hatred of citizens of Czechoslovakia.
Then Russian president Vladimir Putin said during his visit to Prague in 2006 that Russia is morally responsible for August 1968.
(Ceske Noviny)
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