Posted on 07/04/2015 7:14:38 PM PDT by MikeNJ
MOSCOW/WARSAW (Reuters) - Russia said on Saturday it was outraged by Poland's destruction of a Soviet war monument, warning Warsaw of the "most negative consequences" after what it said was a flagrant violation of an agreement between the two countries on protecting memorial sites.
Poland has been one of the most vocal critics of Russia's annexation of Ukraine's Crimea peninsula in 2014. Russia and Poland share a history of conflicts and the disagreement over war memorials is likely to add to tensions.
"Warsaw must finally understand that the 'war of monuments' unleashed in Poland may have the most negative consequences, for which the responsibility lies squarely with its initiators," the Russian foreign ministry said in a statement.
Authorities in the western Polish town of Nowa Sol took down the brotherhood-in-arms of Polish and Red Army soldiers memorial at the end of June, reducing it to a pile of rubble.
"The monument was large (dozen tonnes of concrete), ugly, always dirty with rust leaking out of the abyss of its emptiness, like blood or tears," Wadim Tyszkiewicz, Nowa Sol's mayor said on his Facebook profile earlier this week.
"FLAGRANT VIOLATION"
The Russian ministry described the Polish action as an "unfriendly move" and a "direct and flagrant" violation of a 1994 agreement between Poland and the Russian Federation on memorial sites.
"One gets an impression that the mockery of our memorial sites in Poland has been built into the state policy," the Russian ministry said.
Poland's foreign ministry spokesman Marcin Wojciechowski told Reuters the move in Nowa Sol did not violate the agreement, which Poland believes only concerns cemeteries. Russia says it concerns all war memorials.
"Issues regarding monuments are within the competencies of relevant local authorities," Wojciechowski said.
(Excerpt) Read more at ca.news.yahoo.com ...
Soviet war monuments, with the exception of the one on the heights in Stalingrad, always look like something Sauron might install at the gates of Mordor: as ugly as sin on Sunday.
This proves the Soviet empirical mindset still exists, for those who had any doubts.
The reconfiguration of the Eastern Bloc remains a goal of the Russians.
Short version: On the issue of Russia, Gov. Romney was right.
“Pay back for The Katyn Forest massacre you Russkie bastards.”
The Russians may genuinely be unaware that it happened because it certainly isn’t in their history books. I’m sure that if it was pointed out to them that they would apologize for it.
</s> and one more </s> in case the first one didn’t work.
“Soviet war monuments, with the exception of the one on the heights in Stalingrad, always look like something Sauron might install at the gates of Mordor: as ugly as sin on Sunday.”
You know, that one was the only one that I thought to be an impressive monument. So I read on Wikipedia that it’s in danger of collapse and it isn’t even that old. You would think that it would have been the one thing that the USSR would have built well and for the ages.
wow, where are the heritage not hate supporters of the Confederate memorials. Tear down history...why?
First the nazis, then the Russians.
Patton had them both pegged.
just itching and looking for a reason...
Especially considering their love of concrete & cheep production. A gun writer, name I can’t remember, wrote that the Rooskies would make bullets out of concrete if they figure out how to make them spin!
But that’s too bad, it really is an impressive monument. On `Mamayev Kurgan’ that’s it.
The Soviet Empire was evil to the core; it was an evil empire as Reagan said. I know Putin’s fans on FReeRepublic long for a neo-Soviet empire under their Führer’s leadership. These are the dilettante conservatives without conservative values: property rights, the rule of law, checks and balances to power, and self-government, and civil rights to name just a few. These are the conservatives who think that if a man bashes fags he’s good enough to lead a movement of conservative values without any regard to how he deals with political opposition or that he was in the KGB for 17 years at the rank of Colonel.
Get used to it Vlad, and get over it.
Total Soviet losses were on the order of 27 million. Just for comparison, the UK and the US each lost less than 500,000.
The Russians, quite rightly, feel that they had the lion's share of the losses in WWII and they are still very aware of it.
The Russians, quite rightly, feel that they had the lion's share of the losses in WWII and they are still very aware of it.
Any statistic attributing Soviets losses to their own command/hierarchy (politburo)/tactics ???
F—K Russia, ...sorted.
Russians are mostly rough people. But, I think, in 2015 & beyond Russia & the U.S. should be allied. The Cold War mentality is passe.
If there are those who work against such alliance now, imo, they’re either misled or want to be misleading.
In the scheme of world matters, it’d be to the advantage of the West & Russia to be allied, and eventually aligned.
Tell that to the idiot named Putin.
Putin will hardly last ‘forever’. And, Putin is just one side in this matter.
That is not what these monuments of “brotherhood” in Poland are about. They were built to show the Poles who rules them and to put fear in people.
Theodore Dalrymple said it very well -
“In my study of communist societies, I came to the conclusion that the purpose of communist propaganda was not to persuade or convince, not to inform, but to humiliate; and therefore, the less it corresponded to reality the better. When people are forced to remain silent when they are being told the most obvious lies, or even worse when they are forced to repeat the lies themselves, they lose once and for all their sense of probity. To assent to obvious lies is...in some small way to become evil oneself. One’s standing to resist anything is thus eroded, and even destroyed. A society of emasculated liars is easy to control. I think if you examine political correctness, it has the same effect and is intended to.”
I’m genuinely surprised that Poland hadn’t removed this crap as soon as they were free from the USSR; while it isn’t even mentioned today, the Soviet Union conspired with Hitler to divide Poland in 1939. While France & Britain declared war on Germany, they ignored the Soviet’s role in it (as well as the Katyn Forest massacre a couple of years later, despite the Red Cross’s assertion that it had been perpetrated by Soviet troops). When the Poles revolted against the Nazis, the Soviets deliberately halted their advance so they wouldn’t have to deal with a free Polish government when they entered Warsaw.
While Americans dealt with rationing to allow us to supply the USSR, they wouldn’t lift a finger to aid us against the Japanese until the very end of the war (when they simply grabbed territory that eventually led to the wars in Korea & Vietnam).
I’m not aware of anyone making demands on a foreign nation, to fly the Confederate flag. Are you? Are you aware of anyone making veiled threats to a foreign nation for not flying the Confederate flag? I didn’t think so.
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