MOSCOW, August 31 (RIA Novosti) - Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin will use his visit to Poland for events to mark the anniversary of the start of WWII to counter attempts to "distort history" and boost ties with Warsaw, a senior government official said.
Tuesday marks the 70th anniversary of Nazi Germany's attack on Poland on September 1, 1939, and the start of the Second World War. World leaders are expected to attend events in Gdansk to mark the date.
Putin's visit is designed "to counter attempts, in an international context, to review the history of World War II and to give a boost to Russian-Polish relations," Yury Ushakov said, adding that "both the Russians and the Poles are ready for this."
Moscow has resisted attempts to challenge the Soviet Union's role in the war, which claimed the lives of 27 million Soviet nationals, according to official figures. Ex-Soviet states, including Poland, Ukraine and the Baltic countries, view Stalin's Soviet Union as an aggressor.
In an article published by Poland's Gazeta Wyborcza paper on Monday, Putin said "the shadows of the past must not darken the current and, let alone, future cooperation between Russia and Poland."
Putin's article highlighted contentious issues in Russia-Poland relations such as the 1939 German-Soviet pact on non-aggression in which the two countries pledged neutrality and agreed in a secret protocol to divide Northern and Eastern Europe, including Poland, into spheres of influence.
Putin condemned the Nazi-Soviet deal, but said it was unfair to claim it acted as "the only trigger for WWII." He said Europe's re-division began with the 1919 Versailles treaty that ended WWI and which he said was "humiliating" for Germany.
He also recalled the 1938 Munich accord between major European powers and Hitler's Germany, which permitted the German annexation of Czechoslovakia's Sudetenland. He said Poland then sent its troops into Czech provinces.
Another sensitive issue in Russian-Polish relations is the 1940 massacre of thousands of Polish officers by Soviet secret police in western Russia's Katyn.
Putin described the massacre as a "crime" but called for "forgiveness."
"The people of Russia whose lives were crippled by the totalitarian regime understand what the Poles feel about Katyn, where thousands of Polish servicemen were buried. We must keep alive our memory of the victims of this crime... as well as of the tragic fate of Russian soldiers in Polish captivity during the 1920 war."
"They should be symbols of common sorrow and mutual forgiveness," Putin said in the article. "Our duty is to do everything to relieve Russian-Polish relations of the burden of mistrust and prejudice, to start a new chapter [in relations]," he said.
Putin will meet with Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk to discuss the possible deployment of a U.S. missile base on Polish soil, another issue that has strained bilateral ties. Moscow considers the plans a threat to its security.
Three agreements are planned to be signed in Poland - on spent nuclear fuel imports from Polish reactors, on shipping in the Baltic and on cultural cooperation.
Putin will also meet with Ukraine's premier, as well as the leaders of Bulgaria, the Netherlands, Finland, Slovenia and Croatia.
Putin last visited Poland as president in 2005, when he attended ceremonies to commemorate the liberation of the Nazi Auschwitz death camp by Soviet troops.
