The echoes of Vladimir Putin’s slanderous statements, in which the President of Russia accused Poland of collaborating with Hitler to unleash the Second World War, are not stopping. In a propaganda attack on our country, Putin described Józef Lipski, the Polish ambassador in Berlin in the 1930s, as an “anti-Semitic villain.” It seems, however, that at least for now Putin has failed in his calculations, as Western governments and Jewish communities have taken a position on this matter, in solidarity with Poland.
The Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs reacted decisively to Putin’s lies, then a statement presenting a principled view of Poland’s position was announced by Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki in agreement with the president. Some opposition politicians and liberal media have criticized the President for not responding adequately to Putin’s words in his New Year’s address.
”I believe that the message addressed to citizens should not refer at all to statements made by Vladimir Putin because it would give these statements some validity. It would be bad if this message were to represent our president’s reaction, if he were to mix such warm wishes to his countrymen with responding to the nonsense spoken by the Russian president”- says Marek Król, columnist.
Commentators emphasize that the Russian president, by launching an aggressive propaganda action against Poland and using the anti-Semitic card for this purpose, was counting on the reaction of the West that would be unfavourable towards Poland. However, representatives of Western governments, as well as Jewish communities, took a stand in solidarity with Poland.
”Such a well-planned reaction clearly showed that Poland is not Russia’s errand boy. The distribution of these reactions in time showed that the statements made by Putin are simply not serious to us. Moreover, the reactions of international ambassadors of Germany, USA and Israel itself are a testament to the fact that our response was proper”- says Maciej Chudkiewicz, columnist, TVP3 Warsaw.
This year is the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. This year, the official celebrations associated with the commemoration of this anniversary will be held first on January 23 in Yad Vashem in Israel – where Vladimir Putin will be one of the guests, and then on January 27 in Poland. The Kremlin spokesman, Dmitry Pieskov has already officially announced that the schedule of the President of Russia does not include a visit to Poland.