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Must have flunked history: Senior MP slams US ambassador’s distortion of WWII

On Monday, US Ambassador to Poland Georgette Mosbacher claimed that Hitler and Stalin colluded to start World War II
Chairman of the Russian State Duma’s Foreign Affairs Committee Leonid Slutsky  Sergei Malgavko/TASS
Chairman of the Russian State Duma’s Foreign Affairs Committee Leonid Slutsky
© Sergei Malgavko/TASS

MOSCOW, December 31. /TASS/. Remarks by US Ambassador to Poland Georgette Mosbacher about the alleged collusion between Hitler and Stalin on the partition of that country encourage Warsaw to continue spreading historical lies, Chairman of the Russian State Duma’s (lower house) Foreign Affairs Committee Leonid Slutsky told reporters.

"Remarks by the US ambassador to Poland about the collusion between Stalin and Hitler are not just ignorant, they embolden Warsaw to keep on spreading historical falsehoods," Slutsky said, stressing that this encouraged Poland to "embark on state-sponsored malicious mischief."

He stressed that "although more than 600,000 Soviet soldiers sacrificed their lives, so that Polish lives and freedom could be saved, the Poles continue to uproot the graves of the liberators to the applause of Washington, while distorting history in general." "Russophobia is shifting from hysteria to profanity. Such statements by diplomats representing a country that was a member of the anti-Hitler coalition are just a shame," Slutsky concluded.

On Monday, Mosbacher wrote in a Twitter post that "Hitler and Stalin colluded to start WWII," while Poland "was a victim of this horrible conflict." The Russian Foreign Ministry expressed surprise at that, suggesting that the diplomat must have flunked her history classes at school. It also recalled that Nazi Germany’s operation to seize Poland had been prepared in accordance with the order of April 10, 1939, and therefore the Soviet-German Nonaggression Pact signed on August 23, 1939, could not have caused the operation and the entire Second World War.

Meanwhile, Russian State Duma (lower house) Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin, commenting on Mosbacher’s remarks, suggested that the US Department of State, "before sending an ambassador to a country, should inquire about his or her knowledge of that country’s history."