Putin accuses Prince Charles of unroyal behaviour with Hitler remark

Russian President Vladimir Putin accused Britain's Prince Charles yesterday of unacceptable and unroyal behaviour by comparing him with Adolf Hitler over Russia's stance in Ukraine.

Putin said he had not heard the comment, made by the prince to a Jewish woman who fled Poland during the second world war, but asked reporters to pass on a message to the heir to the British throne and to the prime minister, David Cameron.

"This is not royal behaviour," Putin told journalists at the Konstantinovsky Palace, built in the 18th and 19th centuries on the coast of the Gulf of Finland outside St Petersburg, Russia's former imperial capital.

"If you are angry, this means you are wrong. I have not heard this remark. If (it was said), then it is unacceptable," Putin said.

"I think he himself realises that. He is a well-brought-up person. I know him and other members of the royal family personally. But I have got used to all kinds of things over the years."

According to a British newspaper, the prince, 65, made the comment last week during a tour of Canada.