Polish President Andrzej Duda, in an interview with Wprost magazine, said that Warsaw intends to demand compensation from Russia allegedly for damage caused to the country during World War II.
The Polish leader believes that there is no reason to refuse to implement this idea.
“Of course, Russia later (after Germany. -
RT
) joined this war, so I believe that we should also demand reparations from Russia ... I think we should do it.
I see no reason not to achieve this, ”Duda said.
Warsaw is currently demanding reparations for World War II from Germany, valuing them at $1.3 trillion.
On September 14, the country's Seimas adopted a resolution calling on the German government to take political, historical, legal and financial responsibility for the harm caused by the Third Reich.
According to experts, in the near future Warsaw may put forward similar demands to Russia as the legal successor of the USSR.
The Soviet state, from the point of view of the modern Polish authorities, is allegedly guilty of the occupation of the country.
“The topic of so-called reparations is being discussed with a certain frequency in the Polish politicum.
However, a scenario cannot be ruled out in which Warsaw, especially against the backdrop of events in Ukraine, will put forward already clearly formulated claims against Russia, as was done with regard to Germany, ”political scientist Alexander Asafov said in a conversation with RT.
In turn, Vladimir Dzhabarov, the first deputy head of the International Affairs Committee of the Federation Council, said in an RT commentary that Warsaw has no chance of receiving any compensation from Moscow or Berlin.
According to the senator, the Polish authorities needlessly "get carried away" with speculations on the topic of historical grievances.
“This is not the first time we have seen insane attacks and provocations from Warsaw.
One gets the impression that Polish leaders and individual politicians have lost touch with reality.
I think that even Germany, which is its ally, is tired of Polish demands.
As for the demands on Russia, let them try to present them," Dzhabarov said.
"Historical Parallels"
The initiator of the demands for reparations from the Russian Federation and Germany is the ruling conservative party "Law and Justice" in the republic, headed by Yaroslav Kaczynski.
In early August, in an interview with the Rzeczpospolita newspaper, Arkadiusz Mulyarchik, a deputy from this political force, said that Warsaw should calculate the damage from losses in World War II, incurred due to the actions of the USSR, and during the "occupation" - this is how in modern Poland they call the period of the country's stay under the power of the socialist government, focused on cooperation with Moscow.
Soldiers of the 2nd Belorussian Front communicate with civilians in Polish Bialystok
RIA News
As Mulyarchik noted, after assessing the damage, Warsaw should wait for the right moment to present financial claims to the Russian Federation.
Earlier, he said that the relevant decision should be made by the country's parliament.
However, according to the Russian Ambassador to Poland, Sergei Andreev, Mulyarchik's statements cannot be taken seriously - "balancing mutual debts" will not be in Warsaw's favor.
“This question comes up from time to time, but I think that no one takes it seriously either here or in Poland.
Considering that today's Poland exists thanks to the victory of the Soviet people in the Great Patriotic War, summing up the balances of mutual debts would definitely and categorically not be in favor of Poland," Andreev said on the air of the Rossiya 24 TV channel.
Earlier, the Russian ambassador has already spoken on this topic, noting that Poland is already "indebted" to Russia.
Speaking in January 2020 at events in Poland on the occasion of the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, Andreev recalled that it was the USSR that saved the Poles from extermination, and their statehood from destruction.
“Poland exists today thanks to the victory of the Soviet Union in World War II.
Without this victory, there would be neither Poland nor Poles on this earth.
It is known what fate was prepared for this country and its people by the leaders of the Third Reich, ”the ambassador emphasized.
Recall that Poland was cleared of Nazi invaders as a result of the bloody battles of 1944-1945.
The Polish Army provided significant support to the Red Army.
In particular, Soviet troops and Polish formations liberated Warsaw together in mid-January 1945.
In the battle for Poland, the Red Army suffered heavy losses - about 600 thousand killed.
After the war, the Soviet government insisted on increasing the territory of Poland at the expense of the lands that were part of Nazi Germany.
So, Poland received part of East Prussia, Danzig (Gdansk), Stettin (Szczecin), Breslau (Wroclaw), Elbing (Elblag).
Despite the territorial acquisitions thanks to the USSR and the high price paid by the Red Army for the expulsion of the Nazis from Polish lands, Warsaw not only makes financial claims to the Russian Federation, but also, under various pretexts, tries to erase the memory of the Soviet liberators.
Demolition of the monument of Gratitude to the soldiers of the Red Army in Warsaw
RIA News
© Alexey Bukchin
Recall that five years ago, Andrzej Duda signed a law banning propaganda of communism, which allows dismantling almost 500 monuments of the Soviet era.
As of May 2021, according to the Russian Foreign Ministry, Warsaw demolished 449 memorials in violation of intergovernmental agreements with the Russian Federation.
The war with monuments continued in 2022 against the background of the declared fight against the cultural heritage of Russia.
In recent months, Poland has desecrated the memorial cemetery of Soviet soldiers in Warsaw, destroyed the monuments of the Red Army in the settlements of Walbrzych and Brzeg.
In a conversation with RT, a teacher at the Department of Foreign Regional Studies and Foreign Policy of the Historical and Archival Institute of the Russian State Humanitarian University, Vadim Trukhachev, said that Poland was consistently erasing the liberation mission of the Red Army from historical memory.
In this context, in his opinion, the theme of reparations just fits.
“I think that Polish nationalists are well aware of the futility of trying to wait for any payments from Moscow.
Apparently, an attempt to further inflame Russophobic sentiments in society plays a role here, once again to draw historical parallels with the “aggressive” modern Russia, ”says Trukhachev.
As the expert emphasized, at present, the main source of claims against the Russian Federation related to the past is the Law and Justice party, which leads the ruling coalition.
Back in 2017, this political force set out to get Russia to pay reparations under the Riga Treaty of 1921, which ended the Soviet-Polish war.
As Yan Mosinsky, a member of the ruling party, said at the time, Moscow allegedly has to pay the debt of Soviet Russia, which amounts to 30 million rubles in gold.
From the point of view of the parliamentarian, Moscow should sit down at the negotiating table and discuss the fate of the reparations.
The position of the Law and Justice functionary found support in the Ministry of Justice of Poland, but as a result, Warsaw did not receive any payments.
Rampant Russophobia
Vladimir Dzhabarov believes that Poland needs to "moderate appetites" and think about the likelihood of counterclaims.
The senator advised Warsaw to value liberation from Nazism and territorial acquisitions following the results of World War II.
“The Polish authorities behave so loosely that they openly say that everyone around them owes them.
But if you dive into history, then both Germany and Russia can remember a lot.
For example, the period of partitions of the Commonwealth,” recalled Dzhabarov.
Desecration of a monument to a Soviet soldier in Warsaw, May 9, 2022
Gettyimages.ru
© Maciej Luczniewski / NurPhoto
From the point of view of Alexander Asafov, Duda's statement about the reparations that Russia supposedly has to pay must also be considered in the context of the events taking place in Ukraine.
According to the expert, Warsaw did not give up its claims on the territory of Western Ukraine and Western Belarus, which, under the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, were ceded to the USSR.
According to the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service, Warsaw really claims to establish control over "its historical possessions" in Ukraine.
At the same time, the department admits that Poland may decide to send troops to the western regions of Ukraine under the slogan of "protecting them from Russian aggression."
According to Asafov, Warsaw has similar ambitions, but so far it has not resorted to such a plan due to the lack of US consent, due to reputational risks, and because of the inevitability of big problems with the local population during “integration”.
“The Poles call these territories eastern kreses.
It is beneficial for them to support the theme of historical grievances and the alleged injustice of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact.
This gives them a rationale for restoring, in their opinion, “historical justice”, but, as it seems to me, this scenario is now unrealistic, including because Poland does not want to be branded as an aggressor and occupier,” says Asafov.
In turn, Vadim Trukhachev is inclined to believe that the topic of reparations is largely the result of the spread of chauvinism and hatred of Russia in Poland.
“Perhaps, to a certain extent, the Polish elite is trying in this way to distract society from internal problems.
But, it seems to me, we are witnessing another attack of unbridled Russophobia, ”summed up Trukhachev.