Putin calls exclusion from Auschwitz liberation event ‘shameful’
In this pool photograph distributed by the Russian state agency Sputnik, Russia's President Vladimir Putin attends a wreath-laying ceremony at the monument 'Motherland' at the Piskaryovskoye Memorial Cemetery in Saint Petersburg, on January 27, 2025. (AFP Photo)
Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Sunday not inviting Russia to events marking the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz concentration camp was “shameful.”
“As for the invitation and non-invitation to events related to the liberation of Auschwitz, this is, of course, such a strange, shameful thing,” Putin said in an interview with Russian journalist Pavel Zarubin, an excerpt of which was shared on his Telegram account.
“You can have any attitude toward Russia’s policy, toward the head of the Russian state, toward me; no one is begging for any invitation. But if you think about it, you could have acted much more subtly,” Putin further said.
The Russian president argued that if it was no longer possible to invite Soviet soldiers who liberated the camp because of their health or age, their relatives could have at least been invited.
On Jan. 27, a commemoration was held to mark the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp, where multiple world leaders were in attendance, including Germany’s chancellor and the French, Polish and Ukrainian presidents.
The Auschwitz concentration camp, established by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland, was liberated by Soviet forces on Jan. 27, 1945.
The notorious camp was one of the largest concentration centers, where 1.1 million people were killed by 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 U.N. adopted a resolution in 2005 to mark the date of Auschwitz’s liberation as International Holocaust Remembrance Day.
Russia has not been invited to take part in the annual events commemorating Auschwitz’s liberation since the start of the Ukraine war in February 2022.
