Germany and the Soviet Union were jointly responsible for the outbreak of World War II, US Ambassador to Warsaw Georgette Mosbacher argued today, responding to Russian President Vladimir Putin's recent statements about how the war started.
“Dear President Putin, Hitler and Stalin conspired to start WWII. This is a fact. Poland was a victim of this horrific conflict," Mosbacher tweeted.
A few hours later, the Russian embassy in Poland replied to her:"Dear ambassador, do you really think you know more about history than you do about diplomacy?"
Last week, Putin denied that the Soviet Union played any role in starting the war and attempted to shift the blame to Warsaw. He also dismissed the notion that Soviet Russia invaded Polish territory in 1939 and implied that Poland was Hitler's accomplice in the Holocaust, calling its ambassador who served in Germany before WWII an "anti-Semitic pig".
Putin also criticized a European Parliament resolution saying the 1939 Ribbentrop-Molotov non-aggression pact between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union "opened the way for the outbreak" of war.
Putin's comments caused an outcry in Poland. The government summoned the Russian ambassador to express its displeasure. On Sunday, Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said it was unacceptable to portray the perpetrators as victims. Putin "lied about Poland on many occasions, and he always did it on purpose. This usually happens when the Russian authorities feel international pressure because of their action".
However, Deputy Foreign Minister Simon Sekovski fel Sek expressed the view that Putin's statements may paradoxically have the opposite effect of what he seeks:to heighten the awareness, in Western countries, that Poland was a victim of both Germany and of Russia at the beginning of World War II. "I think the fact that the Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact was the basis for the outbreak of World War II is not widely known in Western Europe," he explained.
The German ambassador to Poland, Rolf Nickel, also got involved in the controversy this afternoon. "The view of the federal government is clear:the Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact served as a preparation for Hitler's Germany's criminal war of aggression against Poland. The USSR, together with Germany, participated in the brutal dismemberment of Poland," he commented.