WARSAW – A new dispute concerning World War II remembrance has broken out between Poland and Russia as relations deteriorate between the two neighbors over Russian actions in Ukraine.
The clash comes as Poland considers hosting foreign leaders in Gdansk on May 8 to mark the 70th anniversary of the war’s end. That would give Western leaders an excuse to avoid a big victory parade in Moscow the next day.
Polish Foreign Minister Grzegorz Schetyna said “it’s not natural that tributes marking the end of the war should be organized where the war began.”
That comment, a reference to the Soviet invasion of Poland at the start of World War II, angered officials in Russia, who prefer to stress the heroic Soviet role in fighting with the Allies to defeat Nazi Germany.
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