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Polish officials in bid to expose Putin’s lies: report

20.01.2020 15:57
Polish officials are prepared to fend off any lies Russian President Vladimir Putin might tell an audience of international figures at this week’s World Holocaust Forum in Jerusalem, according to a report.
Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Russian President Vladimir Putin.Photo: EPA/OMER MESSINGER

The high-profile international event is scheduled to take place at the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial in Jerusalem on Thursday. It aims to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi German Auschwitz death camp.

Ahead of the conference, Poland’s President Andrzej Duda has set up a special crisis management team at his office to respond to "any lies and manipulations" Putin may be tempted to use in Jerusalem, Polish private radio broadcaster RMF FM reported on Monday.

The team includes experts and historians, according to RMF FM.

Meanwhile, various American and Israeli newspapers are expected to publish a series of interviews and stories focusing on Polish history in the run-up to the conference.

The Polish president has said he will not take part in the World Holocaust Forum because the organisers have not allowed him to speak at the event, alongside his counterparts from Russia, Israel, Germany and France.

Russia’s Putin recently suggested that Poland was partly responsible for the outbreak of World War II, and claimed that the Soviet Union helped “save lives” after it invaded Poland in 1939 following the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact between the USSR and Nazi Germany.

The comments triggered anger in Warsaw. Poland’s Duda accused Putin of “post-Stalinist revisionism” and of trying to shift the blame for the outbreak of World War II onto Poland.

Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said that Putin “has lied about Poland on numerous occasions, and he has always done it deliberately.”

Polish Deputy Foreign Minister Szymon Szynkowski vel Sęk last month said Putin was pursuing a "dangerous narrative campaign" against Poland.

(gs)

Source: rmf24.pl