Image source, Getty Images Image caption,

A line of Russian tanks in Budapest during the army's suppression of the 1956 anti-communist uprising

By Laura Gozzi

BBC News

Russian President Vladimir Putin has said the Soviet invasions of Hungary and Czechoslovakia were wrong.

Speaking at a forum in eastern Russia, he said it is not right to do anything in foreign policy that harms the interests of other people.

His remarks come as Russian troops continue fighting in Ukraine.

The Soviet Union invaded Hungary in 1956 and Czechoslovakia in 1968 following mass protests and demands for greater freedoms.

President Putin made the comments at the Eastern Economic Forum in the far eastern Russian city of Vladivostok on Tuesday.

A moderator asked him how he would respond to those who say the Soviet Union behaved like a colonial power when it sent tanks into Prague in 1968 and Budapest in 1956.

Mr Putin said: "We acknowledged a long time ago that that part of the Soviet policy was mistaken and only led to tension in relations. One must not do anything in foreign policy that comes in direct contradiction with the interests of other peoples."