Russian State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin’s appeal to impose sanctions on Poland and demand Warsaw repay for post-war Soviet investments are typical propaganda, Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said on Monday.

In a statement, Volodin, chairman of Russian parliament’s lower house of the Russian parliament, argues that Poland needs to be punished for having “betrayed the historical memory” of the Soviet Union’s liberation of the country from Nazi Germany with a series of hostile acts against Russia.

He continued to say that Warsaw should pay Russia over $750 billion (€694 billion) to compensate Moscow for Soviet investment in Poland after the Second World War and hand back territory it received after the war.

While Russia has already caused great damage in Ukraine, its predecessor, the Soviet Union, is responsible for destroying “a large part of Polish material substance,” he added.

For centuries, Russia has been great in turning things on their heads to pull the wool over our eyes, said Morawiecki, pointing to Volodin’s words as one example of such strategy.

Volodin announced a parliamentary committee would consider banning Polish trucks from entering Russian Federation’s territory – a step he believes would cause significant financial hardship and job losses for Poland.

Last month, Moscow threatened to respond harshly to Poland seizing its embassy school near the Russian embassy in Warsaw, where diplomats’ children used to learn.

The Kremlin called the building’s seizure a flagrant violation of the Vienna Convention on diplomatic relations, while Warsaw said it was just following a court decision as the building was ruled as illegally occupied.

(Aleksandra Krzysztoszek | EURACTIV.pl)

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