President PL
https://www.president.pl/en/news/
President: We remember and will remember
https://www.president.pl/en/news/art,1101,president-we-remember-and-will-remember.html
Speaking at observances marking the 80th anniversary of the outbreak of World War II in Warsaw, Polish President Andrzej Duda said that, "we remember and will remember, being grateful to all those who were fighting and those who sacrificed their lives for a free world."
The president stressed during the main ceremonies at Pilsudskiego Square in Warsaw's downtown on Sunday that WWII took the lives of nearly 80 million people. "Eighty million if we count not only the people killed and murdered but also those who died from hunger, disease and poverty. Three percent of the global population of those times. Looking at Europe, one could say that a big European country and its population disappeared over six years and left an empty land," he said.
President Duda underlined that "mankind has drawn too few conclusions from this terrible lesson," and stressed that ethnic cleansing and genocide still happen.
The Polish head of state recalled that Poland disappeared from the map after the invasion by Nazi Germany was followed by a treacherous attack by the Soviet Union, and stressed that the entire nation was submitted to terror while Polish citizens of Jewish descent were closed in ghettos and and submitted to collective extermination.
"Poland has been left with annihilation camps. One could say that in this way the Polish people have been humiliated by the Germans. They have left their machine of annihilation on our soil. But today, we are its depositories, we have been taking care of it so that it bears witness to the world," he said.
Speaking at observances marking the 80th anniversary of the outbreak of World War II in Warsaw, German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier said that, "this was a German crime." "There is no place in Europe where it would be more difficult for me to speak and raise my voice in my German mother tongue. It is difficult for me to speak out loud to you," Steinmeier said when beginning the speech. The German president said that he had come here being humble and grateful, and stressed that 80 years ago his homeland attacked its neighbour, Poland. My compatriots staged a war which cost the lives of over 50 million people. This was a German crime, he underlined.
US Vice President Michael Pence said it was a great honour for him to be here on behalf of the US president and the American people. He said that the gathering was taking place in the heart of Warsaw to bear witness to the courage and spirit of a great nation, and the lasting strength of great civilisation.
He stressed he was honoured, on behalf of the American people, including 10 million Americans of Polish descent, to be in Poland, which is free, strong and secure. Michael Pence also stressed that the Polish people have never allowed despair to take control over them, and that they have never renounced their 1,000-year-long history.
Address by the President in Warsaw during the commemorations of the 80th anniversary of the outbreak of World War II
https://www.president.pl/en/news/art,1102,address-by-the-president-in-warsaw-during-the-commemorations-of-the-80th-anniversary-of-the-outbreak-of-world-war-ii.html
Sergey Andreev
https://polandin.com/43836661/russian-ambassador-blames-poland-for-bad-polishrussian-relations
Russian ambassador blames Poland for bad Polish-Russian relations
http://www.tvp.pl/polandincom/news/politics-economy/russian-ambassador-blames-poland-for-bad-polishrussian-relations/43836661
Sergey Andreev, Russia’s ambassador to Poland, told Onet media website that there are no hopes for bringing Polish-Russian diplomatic relations back to normality.
“Too much has happened over the past years,” said the ambassador, adding that no positives about the Polish-Russian relations could have been noted recently. “I came here in 2014, which was already after the deterioration of our relations, and nothing has changed for the better ever since,” said the diplomat.
Mr Andreev told Onet that on the part of Russia he saw no obstacles to improve the state of bilateral relations. “It is the Polish side that has decided to freeze political contacts by anti-Russian sanctions. Also, cultural relations are suffering a downturn.”
He accused Poland of “megaphone diplomacy” and of holding spurious grievances over the construction of the Nord Stream pipeline. He accused the Polish media of “Ruso-phobia.”
No need to fear Russia?
The Russian diplomat argued that Poland had no reason to fear Russia and said that “the NATO budget is 20 times larger than that of Russia.” He also claimed that Russia had no interest in invading Poland.
The wreck of the Polish presidential plane stays in Russia
Asked whether Russia will return the wreck of the presidential plane that crashed near Smolensk, western Russia, on April 10, 2010, killing all 96 people onboard, including the then-president Lech Kaczyński and the First Lady Maria Kaczyńska, the ambassador said that “if Poland gave up on conspiracy theories… the wreckage would have been in Poland long ago.” His claim is based on the fact that Russia has yet to conclude the criminal investigation of the crash, though it has ended the investigation by MAK.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/russia-backtracks-from-accusations-at-poland-claiming-the-country-started-world-war-ii-a6670046.html
Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth
1703 Johann Patkul
1701–1706 Grigory Fyodorovich Dolgorukov (ru:Долгоруков, Григорий Фёдорович)
1706–1707 Vasily Lukich Dolgorukov
1709–1712 Grigory Fyodorovich Dolgorukov
1712–1718 Aleksandr Dashkov (resident)
1714 Naryshkin
1715–1721 Grigory Fyodorovich Dolgorukov (ambassador)
1721–1725 Sergey Grigorievich Dolgorukov (Сергей Григорьевич Долгоруков )
1725–1726 Vasily Lukich Dolgorukov
1728–1729 Sergey Grigorievich Dolgorukov
1730–1733 Friedrich Casimir von Loewenwolde (Фридрих Казимир Левенвольде) (ambassador extraordinary/minister plenipotentiary)
1763–1794
See: Ambassadors and envoys from Russia to Poland (1763–1794)
1918–1989
See: Ambassadors and envoys from the Soviet Union to Poland
1945–1951 – Viktor Lebedev (Виктор Захарович Лебедев)
1951–1953 – Arkady Sobolev (Аркадий Александрович Соболев)
1953–1954 – Georgy Popov (Георгий Михайлович Попов)
1955–1957 – Panteleimon Ponomarenko (Пантелеймон Кондратьевич Пономаренко)
1957–1961 – Peter Abrassimov (Петр Андреевич Абрасимов)
1961–1971 – Averky Aristov (Аверкий Борисович Аристов)
1971–1978 – Stanislav Pilotovich (Станислав Антонович Пилотович)
1978–1983 – Boris Aristov (Борис Иванович Аристов)
1983–1986 – Aleksandr Aksyonov (Александр Никифорович Аксёнов)
1986–1990 – Vladimir Brovikov (Владимир Игнатьевич Бровиков)
1989–present
1991–1996 Yury Kashlev (Юрий Борисович Кашлев)
1996–1999 Leonid Drachevsky
1999–2004 Sergey Razov
2004–2005 Nikolay Afanasevsky
2006–2010 Vladimir Grinin (Владимир Михайлович Гринин)
2010–2014 Aleksandr Nikolaevich Alekseev [ru]
2014–present Sergey Vadimovich Andreev [ru]
Trump plays golf after cancellin trip to Poland….
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/trump-golf-hurricane-dorian-poland-second-world-war-commemorations-nazi-germany-a9087286.html
Proposal by Vladimir Putin that the US allow Russia to question Michael McFaul met by outrage in Washington
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/jul/19/trump-putin-interrogate-us-ambassador-michael-mcfaul
The White House has declined to rule out accepting a Russian proposal to question on US soil American people – including the former ambassador to Moscow Michael McFaul – sought by the Kremlin for “illegal activities”.
The proposal arose at Monday’s summit between the US president Donald Trump and the Russian president Vladimir Putin, and any decision by Washington to assist with an adversary’s prosecution of former government employees overseas would be a stunning shift in US policy, especially as it could violate the international legal principle of diplomatic immunity.
'Nothing short of treason': US voters on the Trump-Putin summit
“The president is going to meet with his team and we’ll let you know when we have an announcement on that,” White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders told a news briefing. Sanders added that Trump “said it was an interesting idea ... He wants to work with his team and determine if there is any validity that would be helpful to the process”.
Sanders’s comments prompted outrage in the US, including from McFaul, a vocal Putin critic.
“When Trump says Russia is no longer targeting America, that’s not how this American feels,” McFaul wrote on Twitter.
“Putin is most certainly targeting and intimidating me. And I’m an American.”
It comes after Putin suggested at the Helsinki summit that he would let US investigators be present for questioning of 12 Russian intelligence officers charged last Friday on allegations they carried out cyber attacks to interfere in the 2016 US election if Russians could do the same in America for people connected to money manager Bill Browder, a one-time investor in Russia. Browder has said he helped expose corruption in Russia.
Putin accused Browder of making campaign contributions to Trump’s election rival Hillary Clinton with money he earned in Russia on which he did not pay taxes. Putin said US intelligence officers helped Browder.
On Wednesday, the Russian prosecutor general’s office listed Americans it wants to question for “illegal activities”, including McFaul, who was US ambassador to Russia during the Obama administration and is now at Stanford University in California.
US State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert called the Russian allegations “absolutely absurd”.
“The prosecutor general in Russia is well aware that the United States has rejected Russian allegations in this regard,” Nauert told a briefing. McFaul told Reuters he has contacted Stanford lawyers. He denied Russia’s accusations and expressed deep concern that the White House failed to defend him.
“It’s crazy and should be called crazy and outrageous, not just by me, but by the US government,” McFaul said.
McFaul said the White House, by considering the request, was “assigning moral equivalence between a legitimate indictment of Russian intelligence officers ... to a cockamamie fantasy (from Moscow) with no basis in reality”.
The suggestion that the US would hand over a former ambassador to Russia caused deep disquiet in Washington.
Senior Democrat Adam Schiff said McFaul’s freedom was “not up for negotiation”.
Samantha Power, the former US ambassador to the UN, said Trump’s refusal to stand up to Putin was “a travesty”, while Democrat congressman Ted Lieu said it was “batshit crazy”.
Browder said on Fox Business Network that it was “just shocking” for Trump’s spokeswoman to say they were considering letting Russia question US officials.
Reuters contributed to this report
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