Poland slams Putin’s WWII view

Official: Russia seeks to undercut U.S. ties

WARSAW, Poland — The Polish government said that Russian President Vladimir Putin is manipulating World War II-era history in a way that whitewashes Soviet crimes and accuses him of doing it as part of an “information war” against the West.

The statement Friday from the government in Warsaw came a day after Putin in an article in a U.S. journal insisted on recognizing the Soviet Union as the prime defeater of Nazi Germany and suggested that Poland — a nation that was carved up by the German and Soviet forces and which lost 6 million citizens — bears some blame for the start of World War II.

Stanislaw Zaryn, the spokesman for the head of Poland’s security services, called Putin’s op-ed “an element of an ongoing, persistent information war Russia wages against the West.”

The article, titled “The Real Lessons of the 75th Anniversary of World War II,” appeared in the National Interest journal six days before a military parade in Red Square to commemorate the end of World War II in Europe.

Sergey Radchenko, a historian of the Cold War at Cardiff University, called Putin’s article “a piece of crude propaganda” and described it as a “historical narrative that would support his shallow claims to greatness as he seeks to perpetuate his rule.”

The war, in which the Soviet Union lost an estimated 27 million people, is a linchpin of Russia’s national identity, and Russian officials bristle at any questioning of the USSR’s role.

On the same day as the parade in Moscow, President Donald Trump will receive Polish President Andzej Duda at the White House for talks on defense and economic cooperation. Trump has promised to deploy more

U.S. troops to NATO ally Poland.

Zaryn accused Putin of pushing a false narrative about history to “undermine” the West and weaken the bonds among allies.

“The claims made by Putin are part of a comprehensive disinformation effort aimed to destabilize the West, pit NATO member states against each other, undermine the credibility and reliability of the alliance, as well as to paint a false picture of Russia as a global defender who should sit at the table when the decisions on the world order are made,” Zaryn said.

Alexei Nikolsky The Associated Press Russian President Vladimir Putin has said the Soviet Union was the main reason why Nazi Germany lost and places blame on Poland for the start of World War II.