Poland to transfer Soviet relics to nuclear weapons bunker

Warsaw has a troubled history with the Soviet Union and the rightwing government pledged a year ago to erase all symbols of Moscow's domination.

There is little nostalgia for the years that Poland spent as a satellite state to the Soviet Union and initiatives to take down Soviet monuments in the past have sparked an overwhelmingly negative reaction from Russia.

The IPN, which was entrusted in 2016 to take down more than 200 Soviet-era monuments, signed an agreement Thursday with the Cold War museum in the northwestern city of Podborsko where the relics will be housed.

INR president Jaroslaw Szarek said the site had been chosen as "it was in Podborsko that nuclear arms which could have destroyed the democratic world were stored.

"We cannot accept the glorification of the totalitarian Soviet regime," he said.

Szarek however said that monuments at cemeteries housing the remains of Soviet soldiers would not be touched and "will be protected by the Polish state with the greatest respect."

Podborsko is among three bunkers built in Poland to store Soviet nuclear missiles but the sole one which is still intact.