Poland’s former foreign minister Radosław Sikorski has withdrawn an accusation that Russian president Vladimir Putin offered a ‘carve up’ deal on Ukraine to the Polish government – blaming ‘memory failure’ for his mistake.
Mr Sikorski gave an interview to American journalist Ben Judah, of Politico magazine, in which he claimed that Mr Putin had told then Polish prime minister Donald Tusk that he wanted the two nations to share Ukraine. Mr Sikorski claimed that Mr Putin said that ‘Lviv is Polish’ and ‘Ukraine is an artificial country’, and invited Mr Tusk to ‘sort it out among ourselves’.
The comments were said to have been made between the two leaders in Moscow.
However, Mr Sikorski, now speaker of the Polish sejm, later said that his remarks had been ‘over-interpreted’, and blamed Mr Judah for not seeking his approval before publishing the interview. In Poland, journalists are required to get the approval of politicians in this way, but this is not the case in the United States.
Then Mr Sikorski backed down completely from his story, saying that the meeting between Mr Putin and Mr Tusk had never happened in Moscow, and that Mr Putin had made the comments at a NATO summit in Bucharest.
He said: „“My memory failed me. After checking, there was no bi-lateral meeting between prime minister Tusk and president Putin.”
Mr Sikorski attempted to play down his original accusations, saying that Putin’s suggestion may have been a sick historical joke, rather than a concrete proposal.
He also said that, although he was sure Mr Putin had made the comments to Mr Tusk, he was not there at the time.
But Polish prime minister Ewa Kopacz said that, if such comments had been made, Mr Sikorski should not have remained silent for so long.
She added: „I will not tolerate such standards of behaviour” – and apologised on Mr Sikorski’s behalf.
Earlier this year, Mr Sikorski was further embarrassed when tapes of a private conversation emerged, featuring him saying Poland’s relationship with America was ‘worthless’.
