\u201cAs one of the members of the UK\u2019s Labour Party said, royals should be seen and not heard,\u201d<\/em> continued the Russian official, who said that any response will depend on the explanation offered by the British side.<\/p>\n The Russian ambassador in London met with Foreign Office representatives on Thursday afternoon, but the British side refused to comment on what it termed a “private conversation”.<\/p>\n The royal\u2019s remarks, allegedly made to a 78-year-old Canadian during an official visit to the country, surfaced earlier this week.<\/p>\n When Marienne Ferguson described escaping Gdansk in Poland 1939 ahead of the invasion by Nazi Germany, the prince reportedly said \u201cAnd now Putin is doing just about the same as Hitler,\u201d<\/em> referring to the recent incorporation of formerly Ukrainian Crimea into Russia.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Ferguson, who revealed the conversation to the Daily Mail, said the remarks appeared \u201cheartfelt and honest.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n The Royal Family\u2019s press office did not deny the content of the chat, but insisted that \u201cthe Prince of Wales would not seek to make a public political statement during a private conversation.” “If Prince Charles wants to make controversial statements on national or international issues he should abdicate and stand for election. In a constitutional monarchy, policy and diplomacy should be conducted by parliament and government. Monarchy should be seen and not heard,”<\/em> said a tweet from Mike Gapes, a senior Labour MP and former chairman of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee, the UK parliament\u2019s international policy body.<\/p>\n But his party leader, Ed Miliband, said that the King-in-waiting \u201chas got a point about President Putin\u2019s actions and he is absolutely entitled to say that there are real concerns about that.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Just as the Foreign Office, Prime Minister David Cameron said it was not his business to comment on private conversations, but stated that \u201ceveryone\u2019s entitled to their private opinions.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Liberal Democrat Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg was also sanguine.<\/p>\n “I have never been of this view that if you are a member of the royal family somehow you have to enter into some Trappist vow of silence,<\/em>” he told the BBC.<\/p>\n An influential political voice from outside of parliament came from Nigel Farage, the leader of UKIP, who previously described Putin as the politician whose savvy he most admires. “And arguably what\u2019s happened in the Ukraine is because he\u2019s been poked with a stick by the rest of the world.<\/p>\n “All I want to say is this: I think the EU pursuing an expansionist foreign policy and saying to the Ukraine, \u2018We want you to join our political union, oh, and why not join NATO too?\u2019 That\u2019s not exactly helped things in the region.”<\/p>\n While Prince Charles\u2019 comments are controversial in view of sensitivity to political meddling from unelected Royals, and his previous array of outspoken views on issues as wide-ranging as global warming and UK\u2019s education system, this is not the first time this comparison has been made by a senior figure.<\/p>\n![\"Russian](\"http:\/\/rt.com\/files\/news\/27\/43\/00\/00\/23.jpg\")
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The comments provoked a mixed response from the UK\u2019s political class.<\/p>\n![\"German](\"http:\/\/rt.com\/files\/news\/27\/43\/00\/00\/19.jpg\")
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\u201cI think there\u2019s a difference [between Putin and Hitler] and the difference, I think, is that right from the very start Hitler was expansionist and we haven\u2019t seen much evidence of that until now from Putin. <\/em><\/p>\n