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30 December 2019The American ambassador in Warsaw reminded Russian President Vladimir Putin today that Moscow was jointly responsible, together with the Nazis, for the beginning of the Second World War. His intervention comes after the scandal aroused in Warsaw by the declarations of the Kremlin leader who, not only ruled out any fault of the USSR, but also accused Poland of collusion with the Nazis.

"Dear President Putin. Hitler and Stalin were colluded in triggering World War II. This is a fact. Poland was a victim of this horrendous conflict," tweeted the American ambassador, Georgette Mosbacher.

Dear President Putin, Hitler and Stalin colluded to start WWII. That is a fact. Poland was a victim of this horrible conflict.

- Georgette Mosbacher (@USAmbPoland) December 30, 2019 Shortly afterwards the German ambassador, Rolf Nickel also intervened: "The position of the federal government is clear, the Molotov-Von Ribbentrop pact served to prepare Hitler's criminal aggressive war in Germany against Poland. The Soviet Union participated together with Germany in the brutal partition of Poland, "said the German diplomat.

Warsaw summoned the Russian ambassador on Saturday after Putin publicly denied Moscow's role in initiating the conflict, despite the historical reality of the Soviet invasion of eastern Poland on September 17, 1939, two weeks after the Nazi intervention in European country, which started the war. The Kremlin leader also accused Poland of complicity in the Nazi plans for the extermination of the Jews.

Putin's statements are a reaction to a European Parliament resolution, which underlines how the non-aggression pact between the Communist Soviet Union and Nazi Germany, signed in August 1939 by Molotov and Von Ribbentrop, opened the way at the outbreak of the Second World War ".

In Russia, the conflict is often referred to as the "great patriotic war", starting everything from the Nazi invasion of the USSR in June 1941 and not from that of Hitler's forces in Poland in September 1939.

Yesterday the Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki intervened harshly, accusing Putin of "having lied about Poland on several occasions and of having deliberately done so". "This usually happens - he added - when the Russian authorities are under international pressure". Former Polish Prime Minister Beata Szydlo today said she was worried that Putin could continue with this false narrative also on the occasion of the next anniversary of the 75th anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi concentration camp in Auschwitz.