On Saturday, the Ambassador of the Russian Federation, Sergei Andreyev, was summoned to the Foreign Ministry regarding Vladimir Putin’s remarks in Poland on Friday.

“The Ministry of Foreign Affairs expresses a firm protest against the weakening of the legality of the internationally recognized borders of the Republic of Poland and against threats directed at a sovereign state,” the Polish Foreign Ministry emphasized in a statement Sunday.

Glorification of Stalin’s policies tarnished the memories of hundreds of thousands of innocent victims of Soviet communism and contributed to the justification of the crime, MFA said.

At the same time, it was emphasized that the immediate cause of the outbreak of World War II and the division of Central and Eastern Europe into spheres of influence, and subsequently the change of borders in these areas, was the agreement concluded 84 years ago by the heads of diplomacy of the German Third Reich and the Soviet Union, called the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. It added that under the secret protocol of this agreement, the two criminal regimes jointly attacked Poland and divided its territory.

“The historical satire of Russian authorities and the undermining of basic facts about the role of the Soviet Union in waging World War II is a manifestation of deep-rooted Russian revisionism and imperialism. Glorification of Stalin’s policies tarnishes the memory of hundreds of thousands of innocent victims of Soviet communism and supports the justification of its crimes,” the MFA said.

The ministry added that Russia’s ongoing aggression against Ukraine is the most brutal proof of how “extremely dangerous the RU authorities’ contempt for historical truth and inability to account for the co-perpetrators of the greatest disaster of the 20th century, namely World War II.”

“Together with the democratic international community, Poland is making every effort to ensure that those responsible for the aggression against Ukraine are brought to justice and that the crimes committed today against the civilian population are effectively brought to justice,” the ministry of diplomacy said.

Vladimir Putin’s speech from the Security Council meeting was broadcast on Russian television on Friday. “When it comes to Polish leaders, they may want to form a coalition under the NATO+ umbrella and join directly in the conflict in Ukraine, and then take a wider share for themselves, returning – as they believe – a historical region: today’s western Ukraine,” he said, among others. Putin. He also stated that “thanks to the Soviet Union, thanks to Stalin’s position, Poland received significant territories in the West, German lands”. “It was like this: the western region of Poland today is Stalin’s gift to Poland. Have our friends in Warsaw forgotten about it? We will remind you,” said Putin.

On Friday evening, Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki announced that the Russian ambassador to Poland would visit the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He emphasized that historical truth does not need to be discussed. “Stalin is a war criminal, guilty of the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Poles,” the head of the Polish government wrote on Twitter on Friday. (PAP)

Author: Rafal Bialkowski

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