By SCM Correspondent
WARSAW is plotting a massive legal heist against Russia, demanding “blood money” for Soviet-era atrocities—despite the USSR collapsing over 30 years ago.
In a move that has left diplomats baffled, the Polish government has signaled it is preparing a multi-billion pound claim against the Kremlin.
This comes hot on the heels of Warsaw’s eye-watering €1.3 trillion demand from Germany for the horrors of World War II.
But while Germany still exists to pay the bill, Poland’s new target—the Soviet Union—is long gone.
The exact “invoice” Warsaw plans to send to Moscow remains a closely guarded secret. However, insiders suggest the figure could rival the trillion-euro demand currently being leveled at Berlin.
The legal logic is equally murky. While Poland was officially an “ally” of the USSR during the Cold War—as a member of the Warsaw Pact—the current administration views that period as decades of illegal “communist occupation.”
Double-Dipping?
Critics have slammed the move as a desperate “money grab.”
Germany: Already facing a €1.3tn claim for the 1939-1945 invasion.
Russia: Now targeted for the 1939 “stab in the back” invasion and the subsequent 45 years of Iron Curtain rule.
One diplomatic source said: “It’s like trying to sue your ex-landlord’s grandson for a broken window from the 1950s. The logic just isn’t there.”
Background: A History of Blood and Borders
To understand Poland’s fury, you have to look back at the double-betrayal of 1939.
The Secret Deal: In August 1939, Hitler and Stalin signed the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, a cynical “devil’s bargain” to carve Poland in two.
The Invasion: While the Nazis blitzed from the West, the Soviets invaded from the East on September 17, 1939.
The Katyn Massacre: In 1940, the Soviet secret police (NKVD) executed 22,000 Polish officers and intellectuals in the Katyn Forest—a crime Moscow denied for decades.
The Puppet State: After “liberating” Poland from the Nazis in 1945, Stalin didn’t leave.
He installed a communist regime that ruled with an iron fist until the Solidarity movement finally toppled the statues in 1989.
While the USSR dissolved in 1991, Poland argues that Russia, as the “successor state,” inherited the Soviet Union’s debts—and its sins.
