President Vladimir Putin criticized what he said were attempts to rewrite history Wednesday amid an ongoing international spat over World War II anniversary celebrations.
"A campaign is unfolding in front of our eyes aimed at revising the outcome of World War II. … We cannot remain indifferent and unconcerned by this," Putin wrote in a letter to participants of an event in Crimea commemorating the 70th anniversary of the opening of the Yalta Conference in 1945, RIA Novosti reported.
Putin denounced what he said was the belittlement of the Soviet Red Army's contribution to the Allied victory in World War II and called for stiff resistance to any attempts to falsify history, the state news agency reported. ?
Polish Foreign Minister Grzegorz Schetyna last month elicited a wave of outrage in Russia when he credited Ukraine rather than the Soviet Red Army with the liberation of the Auschwitz concentration camp.
On Monday, Schetyna suggested that this year's celebrations to mark the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II should not be held in Russia, saying it would be "more natural" to hold them in London or Berlin, sparking another wave of anger in Russia.
The Yalta Conference was held in February 1945 and was the second meeting between Soviet, British and American leaders discussing post-war organization.
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