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Polish MPs condemn ‘provocative and untrue’ WWII comments by Russia

09.01.2020 17:20
The Polish parliament on Thursday passed a resolution condemning “provocative and untrue” comments by Russian authorities which deputies in Warsaw said tried to shift the blame for the outbreak of World War II onto Poland.
Polish MPs during a session of parliament on Thursday
Polish MPs during a session of parliament on Thursday Photo: PAP/Rafał Guz

The resolution came after Russian President Vladimir Putin recently suggested that Poland was partly responsible for the war.

Putin also claimed that the Soviet Union helped “save lives” after it invaded Poland in 1939 following the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact between the USSR and Nazi Germany.

The comments triggered anger in Warsaw.

The resolution passed by the lower house of the Polish parliament on Thursday said: "The greatness of a nation and relations between states cannot be built on lies and falsifying history.”

The resolution added that “two totalitarian powers of the time led to the outbreak of World War II: Nazi Germany and the Stalinist Soviet Union.”

Polish deputies said they did not agree to “a return to imperial falsities which cause a regress in historical dialogue between the Russian authorities and other nations.”

Polish President Andrzej Duda on Tuesday accused Putin of “post-Stalinist revisionism”.

Meanwhile, Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said in late December that Putin “has lied about Poland on numerous occasions.”

Morawiecki said at the time: “This usually happens when Russian authorities feel international pressure related to their activities – and the pressure is exerted not on [the] historical but contemporary geopolitical scene.”

European lawmakers in September passed a resolution condemning a secret agreement between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union that opened the door to those countries invading Poland in 1939 and paved the way to the horrors of World War II.

(pk)

Source: PAP