The Russian Prime Minister has addressed a letter to the Polish people with an appeal for amending strained bilateral relations.
Report by Slawek Szefs
On the eve of the 70th anniversary of the outbreak of World War Two, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has addressed a letter to the Polish people with an appeal for turning the page in strained bilateral relations.
The letter was printed in Monday's edition of Gazeta Wyborcza, one of the major Polish newspapers. Its overriding message is to remove the burden of distrust and prejudice left from the difficult past in Polish-Russian relations. In a relatively concilliatory tone Vladimir Putin admits to certain Soviet era wrongs, including the Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact, or speaks of understanding for negative Polish emotions with regard to the Katyn crime in 1940. At the same time, he points to actions undertaken by the Polish side in 1934 when Warsaw signed a non-aggression treaty with Nazi Germany, or similar agreements reached by France and Britain in Munich four years later. But all this is void of the aggressive manner presented lately by Moscow.