MOSCOW, January 14. /TASS/. During upcoming sessions, the Russian delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) intends to raise the topic of protecting the historical memory of the war against Nazism and the inadmissibility of rewriting or falsifying it, given the backdrop of recent statements coming from the Polish legislature. That said, the delegation might submit a draft resolution on that issue, Chairman of the Russian State Duma’s (lower house) Foreign Affairs Committee Leonid Slutsky told reporters on Tuesday.
"We will discuss this situation within the framework of our contacts with all political groups without exception. [Our] colleagues from the Polish Sejm also work in PACE," Slutsky noted.
He did not rule out that the Russian delegation may submit a draft resolution, but "to do this we must be sure that this resolution will pass, and those in Warsaw who are trying to blot out this historical memory won’t succeed," should this draft resolution be rejected, the legislator added.
According to him, this draft resolution may appear in the foreseeable future, but first of all Russian lawmakers will seek to convince their European colleagues of the inadmissibility of falsifying history.
"Our task is to consistently convey the truth to those who are unaware of what is going on in Warsaw today," Slutsky went on to say. The goal is to see that more politicians in Europe hear out "thinkers, including those in the institutions of civil society" and realize "what unacceptable developments are taking place there [in Poland — TASS] and what decisions are being made." Russian policymakers will be working on all international platforms to "convey the truth about how the results of WWII are being distorted," he stressed.
Response to Polish Sejm’s allegations
On January 9, the Sejm passed a resolution where lawmakers protested against an alleged "manipulation of facts and a distortion of history by Russian politicians aimed at discrediting Poland and worsening Polish-Russian relations." Poland’s parliamentarians seek to lay the blame on Germany and the Soviet Union for the outbreak of World War II.
At Tuesday’s parliamentary session, Russian State Duma (lower house of parliament) Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin emphasized that "only weak and deceitful politicians refuse to acknowledge the role of the Soviet Union in the victory over fascism." He also stressed that the Polish leadership must remember the price paid for the freedom of the Polish people, pointing to the data on the enormous losses suffered by the Soviet Army in the struggle to liberate Poland from the Nazi yoke.
"Today’s statement by the speaker is a united position of the State Duma, our response to the statement from the Polish Sejm. I want to say that in this situation all factions are united as one, this is our shared stance, our common approach, which I am sure, will be shared by millions of our voters," First Deputy Head of the United Russia faction, Andrei Isayev, told reporters.