MOSCOW, August 28. /TASS/. The European Commission’s claim the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact was the key factor for the beginning of World War II distorts the historical truth, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told a news briefing on Thursday.

"We have taken note of the customary statement made on behalf of the European Commission in connection with the so-called international day of remembrance for the victims of totalitarian regimes. We are forced to reiterate that Brussels continues its very strange and shortsighted policy of falsifying and rewriting European history," Zakharova said. "The European Commission once again repeated a claim that we regard as revisionist. They argue that the non-aggression pact concluded between Germany and the Soviet Union plunged Europe into darkness and gloom."

Zakharova said that Europe began to sink into darkness not on August 23, but when the Western capitals made their choice in favor of the appeasement of an aggressor country.

"The Munich Betrayal of 1938 was the peak of that policy," she said.