Istanbul
Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Sunday that he does not invite Russia to occasions to mark the 80th anniversary of the release of the “shameful” Auschwitz concentration camp.
“As for the invitation and non -invitation to similar occasions to the launch of Auschwitz, it is, of course, something like that and shameful,” Putin said in an interview with Russian journalist Pavel Zarubin, from which an extract was shared on his account of telegram.
“You can have an attitude towards Russia’s policy, towards the Russian head of state, towards me, nobody asks for an invitation. But if you think about it, you may have acted much more subtly,” Putin said.
The Russian president argued that if it was no longer possible to invite Soviet soldiers that liberated the camp due to their health or age, their relatives could have at least been invited.
On January 27, a commemoration took a position to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the release of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Auschwitz-Birken concentration camp, where several world leaders, the German chancellor and the French, Poles and Ukrainian presidents were present.
The Auschwitz concentration camp, established by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland, was liberated by Soviet forces on Jan. 27, 1945.
The infamous camp is one of the largest concentration centers, where 1. 1 million people were killed through the Nazi regime.
Now a UNESCO World Heritage Site, it was converted into the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum in 1947, serving as a stark reminder of the atrocities committed during the Holocaust.
The UN adopted a resolution in 2005 to mark the date of Auschwitz’s liberation as International Holocaust Remembrance Day.
Russia has not been invited to participate in the annual occasions that commemorate Auschwitz’s liberation since the war in Ukraine began in February 2022.