Russian upper house wants sanctions against Poland for ‘de-communisation’ laws

The Polish president earlier this month signed into law new "de-communisation" rules which ban monuments glorifying totalitarian regimes.

The upper house of the Russian parliament wants Putin to enforce "limiting measures" which could affect Polish MPs who backed the new laws in Poland.

Russian parliamentarians unanimously said they wanted Putin to “demand that the Polish side uncompromisingly meets the terms of a [bilateral] treaty” from 1992 on the mutual protection of memorial sites.

Poland’s ruling conservatives have said the deal applies exclusively to war cemeteries, but Moscow says it extends also to symbolic monuments.

Polish commentators have noted that Russian soldiers’ role in liberating Poland from Nazi occupation led to more than 40 years of totalitarian oppression during the Moscow-backed communist regime which lasted until 1989.

But Moscow has called Polish plans to remove monuments to Soviet forces from its public streets and squares a “blasphemous” insult to their memory and an “unscrupulous” attempt to rewrite history.

Monuments are currently being catalogued in Poland and those which are removed will be placed in museums.

An official from Moscow last week hinted at possible sanctions against Poland. (vb/pk)

Source: PAP