Just keeping you updated
Moscow to Invoke “Hangman” to Punish Warsaw for Dudayev SquareIn response to Warsaw’s initiative to name a square in Warsaw after the slain Chechen separatist leader Dzhokhar Dudayev, Moscow authorities threatened to rename Klimashkin Street in Moscow where the embassy of Poland is situated after General Mikhail Muravyov, nicknamed the “hangman” for his ruthless suppression of the Polish uprising of 1863.
The Moscow City Duma willingly agreed to prepare what the Foreign Ministry called “a symmetric response” to Warsaw’s move.
On Wednesday Vladimir Platonov, speaker of the Moscow City Duma, and Mayor Yuri Luzhkov signed a joint statement denouncing the initiative of the Warsaw city authorities as “an unfriendly gesture and open provocation,” the Vremya Novostei newspaper reports.
In comments for the paper Platonov said that Moscow would consider renaming Klimashkin Street in Moscow where the embassy of Poland is situated after General Mikhail Muravyov, nicknamed the “hangman” for his ruthless suppression of the Polish uprising of 1863.
Earlier this week Russia’s Foreign Ministry called the decision to name a square in Warsaw after the slain Chechen separatist leader Dzhokhar Dudayev an insult to the memory of the victims of terrorist attacks.
“The decision of the Warsaw city council endorsing an initiative of deputies representing the party Law and Justice (PiS) and supported by the city president Lech Kaczynski… cannot but cause indignation,” the ministry’s statement was quoted by Russian Information Agency Novosti.
The ministry said this decision insults the memory of the Russian people, terror victims in Moscow and other Russian cities, and virtually supports international terrorism “one of the adherents of which in the North Caucasus was the leader of the Chechen separatists and national extremists killed nine years ago”.
The ministry noted that although the initiative belonged to the Polish opposition, it fit in a chain of “unfriendly steps towards our country as did recent statements by officials in Warsaw in connection with the killing of Aslan Maskhadov, the direct heir of Dudayev’s business”.
Dzhokhar Dudayev was the first president of Chechnya. Soon after being elected he claimed Chechen independence from Russia. This led to the first Chechen war. Dudayev was killed in April 1996.
my feed
4 Comments:
"The presence of president Wojciech Jaruzelski (at the 60 anniversary of the end of World War II in Moscow) is yet another slap in the face from Moscow."
Jaroslaw ("yar-O-suave")Kaczynski ("Catch-EEN-ski"), leader of the Law and Justice (PiS) party on the Russian side extending invitation for May celebrations to the former communist president of Poland Gen. Wojciech Jaruzelski.
I just watched a documentary on the military channel, of the German & Russian invasion of Poland, and man it sure looked weird to see a horse mounted calvary facing off with a mechanized division.
The Poles bravery in an un-winnable situation was inspiring.
I was going to comment here the other day about how undiplomatic and ill timed it was for Poland to name a street after a Chechen, especially considering the Chechens helped the Nazis in Russia, but now I cant imagine the Poles every forgiving their German and Russian neighbors. After what they did to Warsaw, I would never be able to resist the urge to kill every German or Russian that came within range. If I was Polish I wouldn't be real happy with the French or British either, but in reality if either had come to Polands aid at the time they would have been crushed as well.
Seems to me Poland just didn't have the economic base to hang with the German military buildup, and I guess in that respect nothing has changed. They are still in a bad neighborhood if economic decline starts fueling German nationalism again, which I think I see the early signs of. But it does appear the Germans have the Turks in their sights this time.
Still, I must admit my hatred for the French has grown to such an extent that if they ever needed American assistance again, I would be first in line with the anti-war idiots to protest extending the French any help. Their memory span is too short, and their hatred for America rivals mine for them.
Red,
Q: When a Pole is being attacked from one side by a German and another by a Russian, which one does he shoot first?
A: The German
Q: Why?
A: Business before pleasure.
Please don't forget that the Americans abandoned Poland too. FDR felt Russia deserved Polish territory to compensate for its enormous losses -- I guess he forgot about the enormous Polish losses.
When Stalin was debating Britain's foreign minister over the fate of Poland (I believe at Yalta), Roosevelt too was present. He fell asleep.
Once a Pole told me:
"Poles make great heroes, and terrible citizens." The heroics of the Poles in WWII is indeed amazing. Look up "The Kosciuszko Squadron" -- Polish fighter pilots flying for the British. I believe they counted more "kills" than any British squadron.
Churchill on Polish fighters: "Never have so many owed so much to so few."
That Poland didn't have the economic base for the German buildup is right, but they were on their way. The period between wars was 20 years of prosperity for the Polish state that were turned to dust. They even beat Russia in a short war during that period.
I don't share your fear of German nationalism turning into more aggression -- Germans for the most part are extremely ashamed of their past, and the mechanisms of the EU make it almost unthinkable. Poland provides too many cheap goods and services for Germany to want to go to war. Turkey is another question, but I'm positive that the vast majority of Germans will not let the country revert to its bigoted past.
And finally, I don't think the French's hatred for Americans rivals yours for them. It's my experience that the French generally like Americans, although they get annoyed at their politics. If you think that their nose-snubbing is directed only at Americans, think again -- they're a vain culture, and behave that way towards everybody. And don't take Chirac as representative of all French. I wouldn't want anybody taking Bush as a representative of all Americans!
I ought to add that the Chechen issue is not a burning one here in Poland.
If Poles are naming squares and streets after Chechens, it's not because they feel some kind of brotherhood with them, or because they necessarily sympathise with them. Indeed, the Beslan massacre last year finished off any sympathy left here for them.
Post a Comment
< Main