A thought: 50% discount if Putin stumps up the other 50% - after all, far less than half of the suffering of Poland is attributable to six years of Nazi Germany.
Putin should consider it a good deal, because it’s still a lot cheaper than paying all the reparations for all the atrocities committed by the USSR at the behest of his hero J Stalin over more than two decades.
Since 2000, United States "projection" of power has begun wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Libya, and many so-called "drone wars" in Sudan, Yemen and elsewhere.
Of Poland's concern is Germany's "bill" as the article says "Berlin will likely find uncomfortable and has so far seemingly tried to ignore..." this.
Given the above, one wonders when the world's nations at large might begin to make similar demands that our "wars" on terror caused damages which have costs to be repaid. Once the game is afoot, who won't play?
Will the democrats pay reparations to citizens in the future for what they’re doing to the US now ?
World War 3 is germinating.
Any Germans who were involved in the invasion should be liable. Not their descendants.
Where do they stop? What about Mongolia? Don’t they owe reparations to Russia and Eastern Europe? Britain invaded France several times centuries ago. They should pay. And the Norman Conquest. I guess they can deduct that from Britain’s bill. Heck Norway owes everybody in Europe for the Viking invasions.
So many looters and moochers.
If Germany wants to set an example they should give me a few million bucks. Sure I wasn’t alive during WW2 but I think it would be a nice gesture
What game is Poland playing?
It seems a certain faction of Polish politics wants war with Russia, and wants disharmony with Germany as well.
I can’t see that working out well.
Yeah. Reparations for WW1 went great. Let’s do it again.
I don’t know why they go on about this. I get that the history was awful. That said, its been over for almost 80 years. What’s next, should Germany claim back all the territory that is now Poland which was Germany and furthermore make claims for all the Germans who suffered ethnic cleansing and mass rapes and murder?
15 million Germans were ethnically cleansed from what is now Poland and Czechia - the largest recorded case of ethnic cleansing in history.
Who does it help to try to re-open old wounds? Let it go.
Does this mean Poland will give back the lands it got from Germany after WWII? (half of East Prussia and Germany east of the Oder River)
Poles have a point.
Another point is that if the German people and their economy had not been destroyed and looted for (effectively) reparations for WWI, WWII would never have happened.
Poland is an embarrassment. We'd already be involved in WW III if Duda had his way.
Hey Poland. Germany did just that. As specified in the imposed peace accords, Germany provided Electric to many nations as requested or required for 99 years.
Poland got a huge chunk of land from Germany.
Besides that you were part of the USSR.
If Poland wants to hand back former German territory in return for a bunch of money then they need to negotiate a real estate deal with Germany.
But this nonsense of demanding reparations eighty years after the fact is foolishness especially with German and Poland being in the EU together.
Now it’s more like the State of Georgia demanding reparations from New York over Sherman’s March to the Sea.
I actually think this more to do with the Germans and the EU demanding Poland take in more Muslim refugees, this is how Poland is trying to retort.
Poland didn`t exist between 1792 and 1917,
Its was a´lucky country’ that started to exists only because Germany wanted to have a puffer between Russia and Germany after WW1. Russia lost WW1 - seldom mentioned in the anglosaxon world - and was forced to this arrangement.
However in 2018 Germany/Austria lost WW1 and were stripped by all of it´s colonies and some traditional europian core land. This was divided between the ‘winners’ and some was given to ‘new´ Poland to keep Germany down.
There is some argue today, that this was the actual reason for WW2.
After WW2 and 1998 and after the cold war ended, Germany got only reunited by giving huge junks of traditional german
land to again ´lucky´ Poland.
Now this is obviously not enough for Poland - even during a possible upcoming war - they want additional payment from a NATO partner!!
As German I say - enough is enough - why don`you defend yourself alone again the russians. We live with them for longer than the USA exists and will find a solution without having to defend Poland.
What’s that saying about Poland has enemies on both sides?