Witold Waszczykowski
The issue of compensation from Russia for damage suffered by Poland during the Second world war, should be seriously analysed by the Polish government, said on Monday, 4 September, the head of the Ministry of foreign Affairs Witold Waszczykowski in an interview with radio RMF FM. Thus he reacted to the statement by the representative of the ruling party of the Republic about the need to demand reparations from the Russian side.
According to Waszczykowski, the issue for many years is still not resolved from a legal point of view and requires “serious thought”. “From a moral point of view, it is clear that we did not receive compensation for heavy losses as the German attack on Poland and Soviet Russia”, — he explained.
While Waszczykowski stressed that the decision on this issue “goes beyond the prerogatives of the foreign Ministry.”
September 2, the ruling party of Poland “law and justice” said that the country should demand reparations from Russia under the Treaty known as the peace of Riga. MP Ian Mosinski recalled that the agreement signed in Riga in 1921, between the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic and Poland, provided for the payment to the Polish side of 30 million gold roubles, but this amount was not listed. Thus, according to him, modern Russia as the legal successor of the Soviet Union should take this into account.
In early August the Minister of defence of Poland Anthony Macierewicz, speaking on the occasion of the 73rd anniversary of the Warsaw uprising, accused the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany in collusion, the purpose of which was extermination of poles. The next day he said that Berlin is obliged to pay Warsaw reparations for the damage caused during the Second world war, and crimes against the Polish nation. Later the Prime Minister of Poland Beata Szydlo also noted that her country has a right to reparation on the part of Germany.