[sr603]

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — The Russian ambassador to Poland has sparked outrage for putting some of the blame for World War II on Poland, creating a new spat amid deepening tensions between the Slavic nations.

Russian Ambassador Sergey Andreev on Friday described the Soviet's 1939 invasion of Poland as an act of self-defense, not aggression. The comment prompted Poland's Foreign Ministry to declare Saturday that the ambassador "undermines historical truth" and seems to be trying to justify Stalinist crimes.

World War II began after Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union sealed a pact in 1939 that included a secret provision to carve up Poland and other parts of Eastern Europe. Germany soon invaded Poland from the West, followed by a Soviet invasion from the east 16 days later. Millions of Poles were killed in the war.

In an interview broadcast on the private TVN station, Andreev also said: "Polish policy led to the disaster in September 1939, because during the 1930s Poland repeatedly blocked the formation of a coalition against Hitler's Germany. Poland was therefore partly responsible for the disaster which then took place."

Poland's Foreign Ministry expressed "surprise and alarm" at those comments, and Foreign Minister Grzegorz Schetyna summoned Andreev for a meeting Monday on the matter.

"The narrative presented by the highest official representative of the Russian state in Poland undermines the historical truth and reflects the most hypocritical interpretation of the events known from the Stalinist and communist years," the ministry said in a statement.

Prime Minister Ewa Kopacz also expressed displeasure with the ambassador.

"The role of an ambassador accredited in a country should be to build to build harmony and friendly relations between countries," Kopacz said.

Relations have never been easy since Poland, a former Soviet bloc nation, rejected Moscow's control and embraced the West, joining NATO and the European Union. But tensions have been especially high since Russia annexed Crimea in 2014, a step that Warsaw has strongly condemned.

In other points of contention in recent days, Poland blocked a Crimean official hoping to attend an OSCE conference in Warsaw from entering the country, angering Moscow. Moscow has also protested a Polish town's dismantling of a monument to a Soviet World War II general, threating Warsaw with "most serious consequences" for that.

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[Freezak]

Thought brainwashing is non-existant nowadays, although i do agree, Soviet Union attacked Poland solely in self-defense, same goes for millions of victims inside Russia itself, Uncle Stalin and the others killed in self-defense, so they could defend the glorious motherland - 12/10 true dat m8 /ironyoff

[jarz]

As a person with West Slavic heritage, this makes me crack up.

[Freezak]

Ultimately. The Polish have all right to defend themselves in this case and this was purely an immature act from the ambassador due to his countries power back then and now and so he believes he can say what he wants without consequences which Moscow will do nothing. There is tensions because Poland disagreed with Moscow and ultimately joined the west with NATO which I believe to this day was a move which I'd support but really this shit with Moscow and the West is going to continue that they're now mocking a country over an action so many years ago that it isn't going to solve anything but I feel Poland has a right to demolish their monument in that town as they do not want to be remembered as a Soviet Union country but instead as Poland itself and build further developments in their own country which I fully support. Moscow itself has been bashing countries recently over their Stalin days and I just believe that the Soviet Union from the opinion of the west that it never worked and would of never worked yet so many love it so that's what I believe.(Freezak ser, I du not want to be flamed)

People who loved the Soviet Union are mostly uneducated persons/people who never experienced it/people who were above the lower class/people who couldn't dig into history a bit more to find a better reason for their so-called "patriotism".