Moscow mocks Poland’s Russia claim, cites centuries-old “unpaid bills”

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova, commenting on reports that Poland plans to file a claim against Russia, joked that Warsaw has yet to pay “all the bills” of Marina Mnishek, the wife of False Dmitry I and False Dmitry II and daughter of a Polish magnate.

“Tell them that not all of Marina Mnishek’s bills have been settled, so to speak, we are still their creditors, holding the unpaid promissory notes,” Zakharova said on Radio Sputnik, addressing a question about the potential lawsuit.

The day before, Zakharova suggested sending the Polish side a link to Mikhail Glinka’s opera Ivan Susanin in response to Warsaw’s reparations demands from Moscow. The opera Zakharova mentioned depicts the events of 1613, focusing on the Polish army’s advance on Moscow.

On the same day, the Financial Times reported that Poland plans to file a reparations claim against Russia for atrocities committed during the Soviet era, when the country was under Soviet influence.

Bartosz Gondek, director of Poland’s Jan Karski Institute of War Losses, stated that the assessment of damages will be broader than the previous evaluation of losses from Nazi Germany’s crimes, for which Poland had sought €1.3 trillion in compensation.

Polish President Andrzej Duda had similarly called for reparations from Russia for its role in World War II in September 2022.

By Jeyhun Aghazada