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Poland demands Zhirinovsky comments explanation

PR dla Zagranicy
Peter Gentle 13.08.2014 08:08
Russia's ambassador to Poland was called into the Foreign Ministry, Tuesday, to explain “Poland will be wiped out” comments made by nationalist Vladimir Zhirinovsky.

Vladimir
Vladimir Zhirinovsky: photo - wikipedia/CC

In an interview with Polish Radio, Poland's foreign ministry spokesman Marcin Wojciechowski refused to reveal details of the conversation with Ambassador Vladimir Grinin, saying only that the meeting took place.

The Baltic States and Poland are doomed. They will be wiped out. Nothing will remain there,” Zhirinovsky, leader of the nationalist Liberal Democratic Party of Russia told Russian state television on Monday, adding, in the wake of the escalating conflict in Ukraine, that “they will be wiped out. Nothing will remain there. The heads of these dwarf states should think who they are.”

Though formally in the opposition, Zhirinovsky is known to have the ear of President Putin.

Asked if he took Zhirinovsky seriously, Poland's foreign minister Radoslaw Ssikorski told Polsat TV, Tuesday night: “So seriously that we asked the Russian ambassador to the Foreign Ministry and asked him what was the position of the [Russian] authorities”.

Poland's interior minister Bartlomeij Sienkiewicz said that Zhirinovsky is known for making extremist statements on all sorts of issues.

“He's a political extremist in Russia and has held these positions for years.,” Sienkiewicz said, adding, however, that the 65 year-old politician, who is deputy speaker of the Duma, should not be regarded merely as a member of the opposition.

Aid

Russia begun sending up to 200 trucks laden with humanitarian relief to eastern Ukraine on Tuesday to the International red Cross, stationed on the border near Kharkiv.

The Ukrainian government in Kiev fears that Russia is using the pretext of humanitarian aid to deliver weaponry to separatist rebels.

“Russia is playing an absolutely cynical game,” Ukrainian Deputy Foreign Minister Danylo Lubkivsky said Tuesday.

On fears that Russia was trying to use the pretext of delivering humanitarian aid to war-torn eastern Ukraine, Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski has said that “we are in a different position than we were a few days ago, when it seemed there was a threat [of invasion] in the middle of the night.

“Today, we have to admit that there has been dialogue between Russia and Ukraine and with the Red Cross,” Sikorski said. (pg)

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