Putin condemns historic Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact

Aug 31, 2009, 7:38 GMT

Warsaw - Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin condemned the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact - a treaty that remains a sore point in Polish-Russian relations 70 years after it was signed - in an open letter in a Polish daily on Monday.

The pact, 'without any doubts can be condemned with full justification,' Putin wrote in a 'Letter to Poles' in the daily Gazeta Wyborcza, ahead of the 70th anniversary of the outbreak of World War II.

The 1939 Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact was a non-aggression pact between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union, but it also included a secret clause that divided up Poland between Berlin and Moscow.

Putin emphasized that in the 1930s, Western European nations were looking for diplomatic solutions with Nazi Germany.

But a different treaty, the Munich Agreement of 1938, ruined hopes of forming 'a common front in fighting fascists' when France and England signed the document giving Germany permission to annex parts of Czechoslovakia, and made the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact hard to resist for Russia.

Putin will be in Westerplatte, Poland on Tuesday to take part in ceremonies marking the 70th anniversary of the outbreak of World War II.

Tensions were raised ahead of the visit when Russian state television station Vesti showed a documentary that alleged Poland and Germany signed a non-aggression pact in 1934 that allegedly laid out plans to invade the Soviet Union.

Relations have been strained between the Kremlin and Warsaw after Poland signed a deal for a proposed US missile shield to be built on Polish soil. Russia says the shield targets its nuclear arsenal, despite American assurances that it is meant for protection against Iran.

Russian diplomats have also spoken out against the European Union's Eastern Partnership - a Polish-Swedish initiative to strengthen EU ties with six former Soviet states. Russia has called the plan an attempt to build a 'sphere of influence' in former Soviet space.