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Arguments between Russia and the West about who shares
responsibility with Hitler for the start of World War II are
casting a shadow over the 70th anniversary commemorations in
Poland.
The usually tough-talking Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin
struck a conciliatory tone in an article published in a Polish
daily, saying: "The shadows of the past should not darken
cooperation today and even more tomorrow between Russia and
Poland."
Below are developments in Polish-Russian relations over the last 20 years:
1989 - Poland became the first Soviet satellite to overthrow communism, triggering the collapse of the Soviet Bloc and the communist regime in Russia itself.
1992 - Russian President Boris Yeltsin released secret clauses of the 1939 Molotov-Ribbentrop pact between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union that showed they agreed to carved up Poland at the outbreak of World War Two. Two weeks after Adolf Hitler launched his 'Blitzkrieg' against Poland on Sept. 1, 1939, and Britain and France declared war on Germany, Soviet forces invaded eastern Poland. -- Yeltsin also gave Poland documents showing Soviet dictator Josef Stalin ordered the execution of thousands of Polish POWs at the Katyn forest in the western Soviet Union.
1993 - Yeltsin visited Poland and was feted by the hero of the
Polish anti-communist struggle, President Lech Walesa. Walesa
obtained Yeltsin's declaration that Russia would not object to
Polish NATO entry - which caused an outcry in Moscow. The Kremlin
backtracked and launched a drive to warn the alliance against
accepting its former satellites.
- Last Russian soldiers stationed on Polish soil since World War
Two left.
1999 - Despite vehement Russian protests, NATO admitted Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic.
2004 - Poland joined the European Union. President Aleksander
Kwasniewski met Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin. Ties strained
over Polish reluctance to allow Russian energy companies buy Polish
peers.
- Kwasniewski infuriated Putin by leading the EU mediation in
Ukraine following the rigged presidential election there in
December 2004. A re-run resulted in victory for pro-Western
candidate, Viktor Yushchenko.
2005 - Conservative Law and Justice led by brothers Lech and
Jaroslaw Kaczynski won power in Poland, taking a sharply
anti-Russian course. Moscow imposed a ban on Polish farm imports,
including meat.
- In December, Russian gas monopoly Gazprom and its German partners
agreed to build an undersea gas pipe bypassing Poland. Radoslaw
Sikorski, then defence minister, now foreign minister, compared the
agreement to the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact.
2007 - Poland declared it is ready to host a US missile defence
system on its soil, sparking a violent reaction from Putin who said
the move brings back the Cold War.
- In May, Poland blocked talks on a new EU-Russia strategic
partnership over the meat ban.
- In October, centre-right Civic Platform party won a parliamentary
election, with its leader and future prime minister Donald Tusk
promising to improve ties with Russia.
- In November, Poland lifted a veto on Russia's talks to join the
Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development. Russia
reciprocated by lifting ban on Polish meat imports.
2008 - Foreign Minister Sikorski met Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov in January, who said Moscow would not put pressure on Warsaw over its readiness to host the US missile shield.
2009 - Poland said it was unlikely to sign a gas deal with
Russia during Putin's visit to Warsaw. Attempts at a deal had
failed in late July but talks would continue.
- Poland, which imports about two thirds of its gas from Russia,
faces an annual shortfall of some 2.5 billion metres from 2010 and
Russia is practically the only supplier capable of filling the gap.
Poland receives gas from Russia via the Yamal pipeline, which is
capable of carrying about 30 billion cubic metres of gas annually
to Europe.
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