MOSCOW, February 2. /TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin slammed the fact that Russia has not been invited to memorial events marking 80 years since liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp as shameful.
"As far as being or not being invited to events devoted to the Auschwitz liberation is regarded, this is, of course, a strange, shameful thing," he said in an interview with VGTRK journalist Pavel Zarubin.
"One can have any approach to Russia’s policy, to the head of the Russian state, to me, no one is asking for any invitations. But on the second thought, it would be possible to act much more subtly. If it is impossible to invite Auschwitz liberators due to health, age, at least relatives could be invited," Putin said.
The events on the occasion of 80 years since liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp were held on January, which is International Holocaust Remembrance Day. This date was chosen to commemorate the day in 1945 when Soviet troops liberated Auschwitz, a concentration camp located in Poland. During the camp's operation, more than 1.1 million people were killed there, including around 1 million Jews.
Putin also expressed bewilderment at the fact that Stepan Bandera’s supporters were invited to those memorial events. "Well, inviting people who chose Bandera as their national hero, who is responsible for the death of hundreds of thousands of Jews, Russians, the same Polish! <…> this is very strange, of course," Putin emphasized.