 The Molotov @-@ Ribbentrop Pact governed Soviet @-@ German relations until June 1941 when Hitler , having occupied France and neutralised Britain , turned east and attacked the Soviet Union . Molotov was responsible for telling the Soviet people of the attack , when he instead of Stalin announced the war . His speech , broadcast by radio on 22 June , characterised the Soviet Union in a role similar to that articulated for Britain by Winston Churchill in his early wartime speeches . The State Defence Committee was established soon after Molotov 's speech ; Stalin was elected chairman and Molotov was elected deputy chairman . Following the German invasion , Molotov conducted urgent negotiations with Britain and , later , the United States for wartime alliances . He took a secret flight to Glasgow , Scotland , where he was greeted by Eden . This risky flight , in a high altitude Tupolev TB @-@ 7 bomber , flew over German occupied Denmark and the North Sea . From there he took a train to London to discuss with the British government the possibility of opening a second front against Germany . After signing the Anglo @-@ Soviet Treaty of 1942 on 26 May Molotov left for Washington , D.C. , United States . Molotov met with Franklin D. Roosevelt , the President of the United States , and ratified a Lend @-@ Lease Treaty between the USSR and the US . Both the British and the United States government , albeit vaguely , promised to open up a second front against Germany . On his flight back to the USSR his plane was attacked by German fighters , and then later by Soviet fighters . 
