Tuesday 1 September 2009

Putin almost says sorry


Wielun, where the Luftwaffe 70 years ago
killed 1000 civilians in a portent
of what was to come.

Good article in the Times about the commemorations in Poland today marking the outbreak of the second world war. Well the commemoration is today if you're Polish, Friday if you're British or French. Americans can wait until December 2011. However if you're Chinese your seventieth commemorations should have started on September 18 2001. Anyway back to the Times, it seems in a relativist sort of way Putin has come close to apologising for the Soviet treatment of Poland and in particular the Soviet/Nazi pact of 1939 that set the stage for world war two. It's hardly surprising the Poles are not too keen on Vladimir's obfuscations. Whilst it has to be borne in mind that the Soviet Union was overwhelmingly responsible for the Nazi defeat, for those areas liberated by the USSR in '45 all it meant was Soviet and not Nazi tyranny. Still I shall not go on, I would just like to express my sympathies for all those who suffered as a consequence of this conflict. Also my admiration for those who fought to defeat Nazi terror.