Poland wants more reparations from Germany before turning to Russia

Poland announced an intention to receive reparations from Germany. Moreover, Warsaw may then turn to Russia with the same question, Marcin Pszydach, the head of the International Policy Bureau at the Office of the Polish President said. If Poland succeeds in getting reparations from Germany, discussions with Russia could follow afterwards.

Germany does not discuss reparation issues and closed this question long ago, political analyst Alexander Asafov believes. In addition, the international community assumes that Germany has paid all debts thus making it unlikely for Poland to receive any additional compensations.

Russian MP Alexey Chepa, first deputy chairman of the State Duma's International Affairs Committee, reminded that as many as 600,000 Soviet citizens had lost their lives during the liberation of Poland from German Nazism. The Soviet Union had also invested significant funds in Poland's post-war restoration.

It is only bastards that distort history and uneducated individuals who can make such statements, Alexey Chepa said. However, it could also be a way of cheap advertisement, he noted.

Poland started discussions about new payments from Germany several years ago. A parliamentary commission was set up to calculate the amount of reparations owed. Berlin repeatedly stated that it had no intention to make any new payments assuming that the German authorities had already paid significant reparations.

In September, Polish authorities officially demanded military reparations from Germany for the losses and destruction during World War II. The ruling party of Poland, Law and Justice, evaluated the total damage that Nazi Germany caused at about USD 1.32 trillion (PLN 6.2 trillion).