Poland has summoned the Russian ambassador to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to protest statements by Russian President Vladimir Putin on the history of World War II. "We are ready to clarify the historical truth to Russia's diplomats for as long as necessary," tweeted Deputy Foreign Minister Marcin Przydacz. The world would not forget the "true meaning" of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, the German-Soviet non-aggression pact of August 1939.
Trigger for the diplomatic upset: Putin described the Polish ambassador in Berlin from 1933 to 1939, Jozef Lipski, as an "anti-Semitic pig" according to Russian state media. He accused the diplomat of sympathizing with Hitler.
In the secret German-Soviet non-aggression pact, Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union had agreed, among other things, to divide Poland among themselves. The new border ran along the Bug River. The Second World War began in September 1939 when German troops attacked Poland. In June 1941, Germany invaded the Soviet Union without declaring war.