EUROPE

Putin Won’t Attend Commemoration of Auschwitz Liberation

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WARSAW — President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia will not be attending the 70th anniversary commemoration of the liberation of the Auschwitz concentration camps, his spokesman told a Moscow radio station on Tuesday. The spokesman said that the president’s schedule was too packed and that he was not invited.
Pawel Sawicki, chief spokesman for the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum in southern Poland, said Mr. Putin had no reason to feel snubbed since no heads of state were specifically invited to the Jan. 27 event.
“What we did was send notice to the embassies of all European Union nations as well as to the countries that have contributed to the museum, which includes Russia, asking how many people they would be sending and who would be the head of their delegation,” Mr. Sawicki said.
The answer that the museum received from the Russian Embassy in Warsaw, he said, was that its ambassador to Poland would lead their delegation.
Mr. Putin’s absence, though, will avoid a potentially awkward scene. Relations between the two nations have been chilly since the outbreak of the Ukraine conflict in late 2013. Poland has been especially outspoken in calling for more sanctions against the Russian government over the crisis.
Mr. Putin did attend the 60th anniversary ceremonies in 2005. Soviet troops liberated the Auschwitz concentration camp and the nearby Auschwitz II-Birkenau concentration and death camps in 1945. More than one million people lost their lives in the camps, the overwhelming majority of them Jews, but the victims also included thousands of Russian prisoners of war.
The 70th anniversary ceremonies are expected to draw dozens of foreign dignitaries, heads of state and royalty. A preliminary list of attendees includes President François Hollande of France, President Joachim Gauck of Germany and President Heinz Fischer of Austria. King Philippe of Belgium, King Willem-Alexander of Holland and Crown Prince Frederik of Denmark will also attend.
The United States has not yet indicated who will lead its delegation.
More than 3,000 guests are expected, including about 300 survivors of the camps, several of whom will speak during the ceremony. The only head of state who will address the gathering will be Poland’s president, Bronislaw Komorowski, museum officials said.