Leonid Slutskiy
Leonid Eduardovich
accuses the Polish authorities of state vandalism policy in connection with the dismantling
of monuments to Soviet soldiers in the country.
“Today, the dismantling of the monument of Gratitude to the Red Army in Warsaw is still ongoing. A hateful act of ungrateful descendants of those who had been saved from Nazism by Soviet soldiers. And this is another step of the Polish authorities in carrying out the policy of state vandalism,” Mr. Slutskiy said on Wednesday in Geneva, where he took part in the 139th session of the IPU.
The head of the Committee recalled that Warsaw had approved the possibility of demolishing monuments to Red Army at the legislative level. “Monuments are being demolished, graves are being uprooted … And all and the disregard of historical memory happen with the full connivance of the European community against the background of a common anti-Russian hysteria,” Mr. Slutskiy added.
He noted that the State Duma in July 2017 adopted a special statement simultaneously with the Knesset of Israel calling on the parliaments of Europe to condemn the criminal Polish law, allowing the dismantling of monuments. “However, in European capitals they are busy looking for new mythical reasons for new sanctions against Russia, by turning a blind eye to blatant dancing on the graves of the heroes of the World War II,” the parliamentarian concluded.
Dismantling of the monument in Poland
On Wednesday, workers resumed dismantling of the monument of Gratitude to the Red Army in Skaryszewski Park on the right bank of the Vistula, after the police suspended their work.
The Monument of Gratitude to the soldiers of the Red Army was installed on September 15, 1946 in memory of the soldiers of the Red Army killed on September 10–15, 1944 in battles for this area of the city. This monument regularly becomes a target of vandals. Fragments were repeatedly chipped away from the monument, insulting graffiti slogans were placed on it.
