Protest against Putin attending Auschwitz liberation ceremony

Russian President Vladimir Putin (foreground left) and Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev (3-R) with veteran military figures as they watch a military parade marking the 69th anniversary of the victory over the Nazi Germany in the WWII in the Red Square in Moscow, Russia 09 May 2014.There are reports, unconfirmed, that Putin may travel to Sevastopol later in the day to attend a parade in the Crimean port: photo - EPA/MIKHAIL KLIMENTYEV / RIA NOVOSTI

Grzegorz Schetyna, head of the Parliamentary Foreign Affairs Committee, has said that the presidents of the US, Israel and Russia would be invited to the ceremony in southern Poland, as the event should be “universal” in scope and the death camp and its liberation are “part of world history”.

“It is difficult to imagine that the current situation in Ukraine could torpedo the ceremony, and nor should it. This event should be universal and should be a part of the history of the world,” Schetyna, a member of the ruling Civic Platform, said.

But politicians from the opposition Law and Justice (PiS) party are against inviting Putin to Poland.

“Vladimir Putin conducts foreign policy modeled on Stalin and Hitler,” PiS MP Zbigniew Girzyński has told Polish Radio’s IAR news agency.

“As long as Russia continues to raid neighbouring countries, Putin should be persona non grata in any Western country,” he said.

The Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum estimates that 1.1 million, mostly Jews, died in the death camp, which was liberated by the Soviet Red Army in January 1945.

Putin will meet Barack Obama and other Western leaders for the first time since the outbreak of the Ukrainian crisis when he attends a World War II anniversary in Normandy, France on 6 June. (pg)