Russian Foreign Ministry tells Poland to prevent removal of Chernyakhovsky monument
MOSCOW. July 10 (Interfax) - The Russian Foreign Ministry has said that the removal of the monument to the Soviet Army Gen. I. D. Chernyakhovsky erected at the place where he died in the Polish city of Pieniezno is unacceptable.
"We resolutely demand that the Polish government and the Council for the Protection of Memory of Struggle and Martyrdom, which is in charge of the matter, prevent the removal of the I.D. Chernyakhovsky monument," the ministry said in a statement released on Friday.
"[Warsaw] refuses to heed our warnings and continues to escalate its war against monuments as evidenced by Polish media reports of claims by the Powiat Braniewski [Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship] authorities that the decision to remove the I.D. Chernyakhovsky monument has 'come into effect'," the ministry said.
"In the past year alone, there have been at least ten instances of desecration or demolition of Soviet war memorials in Poland," the ministry recalled. "These acts of vandalism were not commented upon in any way by Warsaw and Russia's protests against all these flagrant cases got no due response," the ministry said.
Russia therefore demands that Poland ensure unconditional compliance with the Russian-Polish intergovernmental agreement concerning the graves and memorials for victims of wars and repressions, of February 22, 1994, as well as the Russian-Polish friendship and neighborhood agreement of May 22, 1992.