Poland summons Russian ambassador over Putin WWII remarks

Poland has summoned the Russian ambassador to express its "strong objection" over remarks made by President Vladimir Putin, who blamed the country for the outbreak of World War II.

The foreign ministry “urgently” summoned ambassador Sergey Andreev in Warsaw on Friday.

Warsaw expressed its "strong objection to the historical insinuations made by the highest Russian state authorities over the last few days," said Deputy Foreign Minister, Marcin Przydacz.

In an angry outburst at the Russian defense ministry on Tuesday, Putin described Jozef Lipski, the Polish ambassador to Nazi Germany, as "scum and an anti-Semite pig.”

Citing archive documents, Putin said that the Polish envoy to Berlin “expressed full solidarity with Hitler in his anti-Semitic views."

Poland, however, considers the views amounted to the “Stalinist historical narrative” and “propaganda of a totalitarian state,” Przydacz said.

He said that "Poland was the first country to engage in armed resistance in September 1939 against the German army, which was backed by the Soviet Union."

“The outcome of German aggression and extermination was the murder of nearly six million Polish citizens, including three million Jews," the ministry added.

After having a “harsh but diplomatic” discussion with Polish diplomats, the Russian envoy said he stood by Putin’s statements as Russia’s official position.

“We have something to say ourselves, on the topic of the politics of history,” Andreyev said.

Putin made the remarks just days after Warsaw had pushed a resolution in the European Parliament in September over the Soviet Union’s role in the World War.

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The resolution that was adopted at the parliament claimed that the 1939 non-aggression pact between Moscow and Berlin had “paved the way for the outbreak of the Second World War.”

Moscow, however, rejected this as a falsification of history.

Poland, a member of the European Union and the US-led military alliance, NATO, has lately formed close ties with Washington.

Last year, some 19 countries, mostly from NATO, stationed around 18,000 troops in Poland and the three Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. A multi-national NATO battle group also conducted military drills under US leadership in Poland.

Earlier this month, Chief of the Russian General Staff, Valery Gerasimov, said that NATO has recently intensified its large-scale military exercises in the Baltics, Poland, and the Black Sea region.

He said Russia had not been sitting idly by in the face of the military build-up around its borders.

Russia has long been wary of NATO’s increased build-up near its borders. President Putin has warned of “NATO expansion,” which he described as “one of the potential threats to our country’s security.”

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