See America, you’re not the only one who has a president who sucks at life.
Via AP:
Russian President Vladimir Putin will not travel to a ceremony in Poland marking the 70th anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi Auschwitz death camp, the Kremlin said Tuesday, a decision that reflects a chill in Russian ties with the West.
Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said on Ekho Moskvy radio that the president hasn’t received any invitation, adding that Putin’s schedule is very tight and he doesn’t have a window for travel.
The organizers of the ceremonies, the Auschwitz Museum and the International Auschwitz Council, said there had been no specific invitations but nations contributing funds to the site — including Russia — had been asked if they were going to attend.
The situation is particularly awkward since the Nazi death camp was liberated by Soviet troops and a large share of some 1.5 million victims of Auschwitz, were Soviet citizens, including Jews and Russian prisoners of war.
Putin did attend the ceremonies marking the 60th anniversary of the camp’s liberation, in 2005.
The apparent reason for his non-attendance this time lies in the Ukrainian crisis. Poland has been one of the harshest critics of Russia’s annexation of the Crimean Peninsula and Moscow’s support for a pro-Russia insurgency in eastern Ukraine.