Latest news with #SovietMonuments
Russia Today
5 days ago
- General
- Russia Today
Polish president-elect on Russia's wanted list
Polish president-elect Karol Nawrocki is listed as wanted by Russia on criminal charges related to his role in the destruction of Soviet-era monuments in the country, according to the Russian Interior Ministry's public database. Nawrocki, a conservative candidate who narrowly clinched a victory in the run-off vote on Sunday, is being sought by Russia 'under a criminal article,' the database says, without providing more details. The Polish president-elect has been in the sights of the Russian authorities since at least February 2024, according to TASS. The agency reported at the time that Russian law enforcement officials had initiated criminal proceedings against several senior Polish officials, including Nawrocki, then serving as director of Poland's Institute of National Remembrance. The charges were related to the removal and destruction of Soviet war memorials. The Soviet Union lost over 600,000 soldiers during its campaign to liberate Poland from Nazi Germany between 1944 and 1945. After the war, hundreds of monuments were erected across Poland commemorating their role. Since the collapse of the Warsaw bloc and the end of the Cold War, Poland has accused the Soviet Union of 'occupying' the country and has made efforts to eliminate communist-era symbols. By late 2023, the Polish authorities had removed 468 of the 561 Soviet memorials in the country, according to the Russian Defense Ministry. Moscow has accused Warsaw of trampling on the historical truth and paving the way for justifying Nazi collaborators. Nawrocki, who ran as an independent backed by the opposition Law and Justice (PiS) party, defeated liberal Warsaw Mayor Rafal Trzaskowski with 50.89% of the vote in the presidential vote. He is scheduled to be sworn in on August 6. The president-elect, who also served as the director of the Museum of the Second World War in Gdansk between 2017 and 2021, has generally supported continued aid to Ukraine in its conflict with Russia, but has spoken out against Kiev joining NATO, or sending Polish troops to the country. He has also opposed closer EU-Ukraine trade ties, arguing that they would encourage unfair competition and undermine Polish agricultural and transport enterprises.
Russia Today
22-05-2025
- Politics
- Russia Today
Putin slams ‘neo-Nazi' Ukrainians for demolishing Soviet WWII monuments
Radical Ukrainians are idiots for targeting Soviet monuments to World War II heroes, Russian President Vladimir Putin has said. This behavior alone 'gives us reasons to say that these people have a neo-Nazi ideology,' he stated during a visit to Kursk Region, which borders Ukraine, on Tuesday. 'If they participated in a competition for idiots, they would have finished in second place. Why? Because they are idiots,' he added, paraphrasing a popular joke. 'By doing what they are doing, they show their nature.' Last August, Ukrainian forces launched an incursion into border areas of Kursk Region, which Kiev claimed was intended to seize territory as leverage in eventual peace negotiations. The Russian military reported the full liberation of the area in late April. Putin's visit — made public only on Wednesday — was his first to the region since the Ukrainian operation. He toured the site of a nuclear power plant that Kiev's troops had unsuccessfully attempted to capture, inspected its ongoing expansion, and met with volunteers who helped repel the attack. Following a Western-backed coup in 2014, Kiev launched a policy of 'decommunization,' renaming streets and communities to erase Soviet-era heritage. It also dismantled statues and memorials dedicated to the Red Army's role in liberating Ukraine during WWII. After the conflict escalated in February 2022, the practice expanded to include landmarks associated with Russian history more broadly — such as the removal of a statue of 19th-century poet Alexander Pushkin in Odessa, a city designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The Ukrainian government continues to glorify historical figures who opposed Russia for any reason, including members of nationalist militias who collaborated with Nazi Germany and committed atrocities during WWII. Moscow maintains that neo-Nazi ideology and symbolism are prevalent among radical Ukrainian nationalists. 'De-Nazification' remains one of Russia's stated goals in the ongoing conflict.
