Polish president slams Moscow for refusing to acknowledge Baltic occupation

AFP via Yahoo!News ^ | Fri May 6, 2005

[lizol]

Polish president slams Moscow for refusing to acknowledge Baltic occupation.

WARSAW (AFP) - Polish President Aleksander Kwasniewski slammed Moscow for denying that the Soviet Union occupied the Baltic states after World War II, saying the claim was "historically unjustified and morally wrong."

"The 'request' by the Baltic authorities to be incorporated into the USSR is on par with the 'request' by Czech leaders in 1968" that Moscow intervene to crush the Prague Spring uprising, Kwasniewski said on public radio.

On Thursday, the Kremlin's European affairs chief, Sergei Yastrjembsky, said that Moscow had not occupied the states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania but had established a presence there with the agreement of the authorities in the Baltics.

"There was no occupation. There were agreements at the time with the legitimately elected authorities in the Baltic countries," Yastrjembsky said.

Kwasniewski said Friday: "This way of stating the facts is historically unjustified and morally wrong.

"We know perfectly well that the Baltic countries lost their independence for several decades, and that cannot be explained away with slogans or legal subterfuge," he said.

Also Thursday, Russian President Vladimir Putin said in an interview aired on German television that Russia does not need to apologise further for the "tragedy" inflicted on the three Baltic states during the Soviet occupation.

In an account of the Putin interview published by the Kremlin he recalled that both the initial independence of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania in 1918 and the Soviet occupation of 1939 were due to accords between Russia and Germany.

Kwasniewski is due to travel to Moscow for ceremonies on Monday to mark the 60th anniversary of the end of World War II.

Latvian President Vaira Vike-Freiberga will be the only leader of the Baltic states to attend the event.

Her Estonian and Lithuanian counterparts, Arnold Ruutel and Valdas Adamkus, have refused Putin's invitation, saying the date also marks the 60th anniversary of the start of Soviet occupation of the Baltic states.

For nearly 50 years after the end of World War II, Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania were stripped of statehood and their people subjected to discrimination, deportation and atrocities. They regained their independence in 1991.

[SMARTY]

I thought the Baltic states was concession to Stalin that FDR made at the end of hostilities. Stalin demanded and FDR caved. Is my recollection of this accurate?

[ops33]

No, the USSR occupied and then incorporated the Baltic States into the USSR after the Soviets and the Germans divided up Poland under the terms of their "Non-Aggression Pact". There was a secret addendum to that pact that "allowed" the USSR to occupy the Baltic States. When Germany invaded Poland in 1939 from the west Russia invaded Poland from the east. The Soviets went through the motions of saying that Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia all asked for Soviet occupation and then for incorporation into the USSR, but this was a fiction. Of course, the US did very little to stop it but to tell the truth there probably wasn't very much FDR could have done. Remember, this was before we entered WW II and many in the US still had an isolationist outlook on Europe.

[Argus]

But in 1945 the Yalta agreement ratified the territorial gains Stalin reaped in his pact with Hitler in 39. There may have been nothing FDR could or would have done militarily to restore the freedom of the Balts and Poles, but the fact that the US government didn't even try diplomatically is a lasting stain on our reputation.

[SMARTY]

I was confused because the issue was discussed both at Tehran and again at Yalta.

FDR was so ill and unprepared at Yalta that he did not stand up to Stalin, to Churchill's disapproval. Russia was one country before WWII and a different country afterward. Much of the 'legitimacy' Stalin and the USSR attained after the war was gained because of the deference that FDR showed to Stalin and the concessions that were made to him. I think that the USSR after WWII is something that, to some extent, FDR made. Your input, please.

[massgopguy]

So what if Roosevelt's dementia gave us 40 years of Nuclear Nightmares. He gave us the Social Security system that will be there for when Mary Jo Kopechne turns 65. Just ask Fatboy.

[pierrem15]

In an account of the Putin interview published by the Kremlin he recalled that both the initial independence of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania in 1918 and the Soviet occupation of 1939 were due to accords between Russia and Germany.

I'm waiting for someone to point out that the same could be said for Poland, under the terms of Brest-Litovsk.

I guess Putin thinks the Balts and Poalnd still belong to the Russian Empire.

[ops33]

See post #5. FDR was in no condition to do anything about the Baltic countries, in truth we were more concerned about what was going to happen to Germany. But we did maintain and recognize separate Embassies in Washington for governments in exile for Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania.