Polish PM: Putin lying about WWII
Poland’s prime minister said Sunday that Russian President Vladimir Putin has been lying in remarks blaming Poland for the outbreak of World War II and argued that Mr. Putin is doing it to deflect from recent Russian political failures.
Mr. Putin has said on several recent occasions that Poland bears responsibility for the outbreak of the war, deepening tensions between the two Slavic nations. On Friday, the Russian ambassador to Poland was summoned to the Polish Foreign Ministry in protest.
World War II began in 1939 when Poland was invaded by Nazi Germany, then by the Soviet Union two weeks later. The dual occupation came days after the two totalitarian states signed a pact with a secret protocol to carve up Poland and the Baltic states. Some 6 million Polish citizens were killed in the war.
“President Putin has lied about Poland on numerous occasions, and he has always done it deliberately,” Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said in a statement. “It usually happens in a situation when the authorities in Moscow feel international pressure caused by its actions. And this pressure is not on the historical stage but on the modern geopolitical scene.”
Mr. Morawiecki pointed to several recent developments that he described as failures for Russia, including its athletes being suspended for doping and a failed attempt by the Kremlin “to fully subordinate Belarus to Russia.”
Mr. Putin has lashed out in recent days against a resolution adopted by the European Parliament that says the Soviet Union bears responsibility for World War II alongside Germany, calling it “sheer nonsense.”
4 dead in avalanches
At least four people are dead after two avalanches struck the Italian Alps over the weekend.
On Sunday, a 28-year-old man died after an avalanche in the Brenta Dolomite mountains at an altitude of 8,860 feet at about 11 a.m. local time, police said.
The man had been making his way up a gully with three others — all expert offpiste alpine skiers from the Dolomite area — when the avalanche hit. A second skier caught up in the incident was injured and transported to a hospital.
Earlier on Saturday, a woman and two children died after an avalanche struck a ski slope at the Val Senales glacier in South Tyrol, a province in northern Italy near the Austrian border, police said.
That avalanche happened around midday Saturday. A search turned up the bodies of a 35-year-old woman and a 7-year-old girl, found buried under the snow, a police source said. Another 7-yearold girl died en route to the hospital, the source added. All three victims — who are believed to be German — were regular skiers.
Serb leader vows shift
Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic will overhaul his ruling party in June after general elections in spring, pledging thorough personnel changes including stepping down himself as its chief.
Mr. Vucic, whose term as the head of state expires in 2022, spoke a day after unveiling an ambitious development plan through 2025 to boost economic expansion to try to catch up with the European Union that his country aspires to join. The parliamentary elections are expected in April or May, after which the ruling centerright Serbian Progressive Party will hold a convention on June 28, he told reporters in Belgrade.
“It’s my decision not to run” for the top party job, Mr. Vucic said. He didn’t say who would succeed him.