We need to overcome Stalinist views on history – Polish FM
Published: 30 June, 2009, 12:43
TAGS: Russia, Interview, RT Exclusive, Politics, Europe
“We have issues to do with history: we don’t accept Stalinist historical views and we need to overcome them,” Polish Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski said in an interview with RT.
The Minister said that he and his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov have appointed a commission to work on the stumbling blocks.
“In recent days (the commission) has come up with a formula that could put to an end some of those sticking points,” Sikorski said.
Disputes over AMD plans, meat imports and Moscow’s relations with the EU have led to fraught ties between Russia and Poland, but the minister said he believes that while differences remain, relations have now turned the corner.
30.06.2009, 12:00
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30.06.2009, 14:43
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@marzipan ...about the parades ... i grew up in west-europe .. so i didn't had a russian tv .. or radio .. in fact i didn't event had russian friends for 16 years.. cause there weren't any russians around me .. so i coudn't have been exposed to russian propaganda .. the sources of information that i've been using are non russian. In fact RT is the first russian source that i've found. Anyway i've read ones ( on polish .. or estonian news blog .. yes... they were translated ) that Jeltzin had already apologized to the Baltics and Poles. But it seems that they want an apology from every new president ... every year ...
Poland has indeed found dialogue with Russia, showing dialogue is possible to establish, if you simply stop shouting and antagonising. If one party can find dialogue with a person, whilst another cannot, then it shows that the one who cannot is the one at fault, or has some more negative characteristics. They may lack the skills and maturity required of modern diplomacy, or have hurt the other party very much. It is a simple fact really. Poland has the maturity to succeed, but it also does have the advantage that it didn't fight with the Nazis as other countries did, it doesn't erect Nazi glorifying monuments, it doesn't parade today as Nazis, and it wasn't seen as the most efficient place for killing jews, because of the enthusiastic willingness of the local poulation of other countries. Well done Poland, a country with diplomatic sense in the modern world.
To Alex: You are right, I shouldn’t be telling you where you sourced some or another news item from – it’s your news, and it is for you to tell us where you heard it. But wherever you may have sourced that particular “news” from, I am in a position to tell you that it is false. Nazism is not glorified in Estonia and there are no “Nazi parades” there. I have heard of one or two (literally one or two) right wing extremists there who occasionally put their head in public and say ridiculous things, and there may well be one or two (literally) others whom I have not heard of, who do the same. Although this isn’t clear in my memory any more, I believe I also once heard of a private gathering on someone’s farm of perhaps 10 or 11 such people. But these people are considered as sad clowns by the Estonian public, and there is no sympathy for their views. There is also a small and isolated “punk” youth subculture in Estonia, which is the merest microcosm of their large and very visible counterpart in Russia. But on either side of the border, I don’t think any of them have much idea of what real Nazis were, and would probably be horrified if ever they learned. And that’s about it as far Estonia and Nazism goes. I repeat, there are no public monuments to Nazism in Estonia and no parades or rallies glorifying Nazism. And most importantly of all, no sympathies for that sort of mutant politics. Also, let me assure you that Yeltsin has not apologised to Estonia about Soviet Russian crimes there. No Russian leader ever has. In view of the monumental nature of that criminality and the profound pain, injury and loss which it caused to the Estonian nation and to almost every Estonian family, an apology is important to provide confidence that Russia takes responsibility of its past, and is serious about ensuring that nothing similar will ever happen again. This is necessary for trust and respect to be restored.