On Katyn massacre remembrance day, Belarusian politician draws parallels between Putin and Stalin

April 13, Pozirk. On Poland’s Day of Remembrance of Victims of Katyn Massacre, a leading Belarusian opposition diplomat has lashed out at the Russian government, accusing it of pursuing policies chillingly reminiscent of Josef Stalin’s terror with regard to neighbors.

Valer Kavaleŭski, the opposition foreign policy chief, notes that ethnic Poles, Belarusians, Ukrainians and Jews were among the 22,000 Polish officers and prisoners executed in Katyn in 1940.  

He also recalls that the Soviet Union on April 13, 1940 began the forced deportation of hundreds of thousands of Belarusians and Ukrainians from western Belarus and Ukraine to Siberia and Kazakhstan.

“Both crimes testify to the scale and systematic nature of terror and genocide by the Stalin regime against neighboring peoples,” Kavaleŭski stressed. “Russia relaunched this imperialist project against all of its neighbors after a short break.”

“The corrupted [Alaksandar] Łukašenka and his regime blindly serve the Kremlin’s cause of stamping out Belarusian sovereignty and ethnic identity and make a considerable contribution to Russia’s war against Ukraine. These are the crimes all countries must stop together and bring [Vladimir] Putin and Łukašenka to account.”