VLADIMIR PUTIN
ARCHIVE OF THE OFFICIAL SITE
OF THE 2008-2012 PRIME MINISTER
OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION
VLADIMIR PUTIN
ARCHIVE OF THE OFFICIAL SITE
OF THE 2008-2012 PRIME MINISTER
OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION
VLADIMIR PUTIN
Vladimir Putin's address:
Ladies and gentlemen, Mr Anatoly Torkunov, Professor Adam Rotfeld, good afternoon.
I am pleased to be here today with a team of professionals addressing a series of extremely complex issues from our common history. The group was established back in 2002, but frankly speaking it has been quite passive, if it has done anything at all.
However, your recent efforts have restarted the group's work. And most importantly you have been absolutely unbiased, objective and politically neutral, and have not shied away from addressing the most difficult issues.
This is also true of the pre-war years and European politics before World War II. This is true of the Soviet-Polish armed conflict in the 1920s and the fates of Red Army POWs in Poland. And this is also true of the Katyn tragedy, in which Polish officers met their death by firing squad.
Overall, I see it as a very good sign that we have come together with Mr Prime Minister Donald Tusk on the 70th anniversary of this catastrophe, this tragedy, this crime. It shows that we are ready to be absolutely frank, to review everything that happened in the past honestly, and to look towards the future.
I must say that what I have seen here today has made a great impression on me. I have never been here before, and I think your work is of critical importance because you are determined to cast off everything that masks the truth.
The truth purifies. And it gives us hope that we can build good, neighbourly relations. We need just such relations. Poland and Russia need this new type of our relations equally.
I am confident that a majority of Polish and Russian citizens hope for just such decisions and partnership from us. Once again, I would like to thank you for this.
Donald Tusk's address (as translated):
Mr Prime Minister,
I am extremely grateful to you for our cooperation and for the work of this group, because as I see it, our efforts would not be as significant without our political determination and the work of this group.
When I had an opportunity to meet with group co-presidents Mr Anatoly Torkunov and Mr Adam Rotfeld in Warsaw for the first time, we already knew that the name "Group on Difficult Issues" was no accident.
We would not be meeting here today if not for our courage and willingness to face the truth. It seemed quite normal for the prime minister of Russia to bow his head at the graves of the Polish officers immediately after he had done so, though the very idea of a meeting like this would have seemed preposterous even a year ago. Few believed this work was worthwhile, but we believed it, as did you, and our belief has yielded results.
All are beginning to understand that the truth is not directed against anyone. The difficult truth of that time is not directed against Russians, Poles, Ukrainians or Jews, because the truth is like a sudden guiding light that shows us the road. And politicians and entire nations should follow this road, even when not everybody likes what we do and what we say.
Thanks to our work together, we will never leave this road.
