The initiative of the Federation Council to impose sanctions on Poland due to the adoption of amendments to the law on decommunization, which allow the demolition of Soviet monuments, is not surprising, since the position of the Russian Federation on this issue has not changed, despite the fact that the document does not violate the bilateral Polish-Russian Agreement, said Tuesday the vice-speaker of the Polish Sejm Ryszard Terlecki.
On Tuesday, the Federation Council adopted a statement in which it suggests the Russian President Vladimir Putin to limit cooperation with Poland because of the law on the demolition of monuments to Soviet soldiers, and also impose sanctions against parliamentarians and initiators of the law on decommunization. The press secretary of the president Dmitry Peskov said that no decisions on this issue have been made yet.
“The proposal for sanctions against Poland in connection with the entry into force of the novel on the prohibition of propaganda of communism does not change Russia’s previous position, and therefore is not surprising,” Terlecki said.
The Vice-Speaker reminded that the adopted amendments do not violate the bilateral agreement between the Russian Federation and Poland – “the agreement that concerns graves concerns graveyards.”
In mid-July, President of Poland Andrzej Duda signed amendments to the law banning the propaganda of communism, which provides the demolition of Soviet monuments in the republic. The law comes into force three months after the signing. According to the calculations of the Institute of the National Memory of Poland, responsible for the memorial work, the law on decommunization will affect about 230 monuments of the Red Army. In the explanatory note to the document it is noted that in accordance with the amendments “it will be impossible to install monuments promoting the totalitarian system”. “Monuments can not perpetuate people, events or dates that symbolize communism or any other totalitarian system, and in any way propagate this system,” the document says.