Vladimir Putin will not go to Auschwitz for 70th anniversary of liberation: spokesman

Russian president Vladimir Putin will not attend ceremonies in Poland for the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau Nazi concentration camp, his spokesman says.

"There is no such a trip on the president's schedule," spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, without giving any reason.

Mr Putin did not receive any formal invitation, Mr Peskov told Russian news agency Interfax, adding however that the Kremlin understood that no official invitations were sent out.

The liberation of Auschwitz will be marked at the camp, now a museum, on January 27, International Holocaust Remembrance Day.

"He will not go but of course we have attached and do attach great importance to all memorial events, especially on the 70th anniversary of victory [in World War II], including those that will take place in Poland," Mr Peskov told Interfax.

Sources told Reuters that Mr Putin was unlikely to attend the anniversary because distrust caused by the conflict in Ukraine had cast a pall on arrangements.

The museum confirmed that no official invitations were sent out but that it did notify 43 countries, including Russia, about the events.

The main ceremony in front of the camp's gates will be led by Polish president Bronislaw Komorowski.

French president Francois Hollande and his German counterpart Joachim Gauck are among European leaders who have confirmed they will be attending, according to a provisional guest list released by the museum...

...Mr Putin's absence will be particularly noticeable since the camp was liberated by the Soviet Red Army on January 27, 1945...

www.abc.net.au/news/2015-01-14/putin-will-not-go-to-auschwitz-for-holocaust-comm...