Polish ex-president Lech Wałęsa has praised Vladimir Putin and deplored the state of Warsaw-Moscow ties in an interview with a Russian news agency, according to a report.

Wałęsa, the co-founder of Poland’s Solidarity movement, told Russia’s Sputnik news agency that he believed Putin was a “wise man” and that relations between Warsaw and Moscow could be improved, Poland’s dorzeczy.pl website has reported.

Wałęsa, the winner of the 1983 Nobel Peace Prize, also told Sputnik that Poland and Russia needed to mend fences while trying to meet each other halfway, according to the Polish website.

“We must find a solution; we must make concessions to each other and understand [each other], and only then will we be able to do something really positive in politics together,” he said, as quoted by dorzeczy.pl.

When asked about Poland’s relations with the United States, Wałęsa agreed that America was a large and powerful country, but one located far away, dorzeczy.pl reported.

He was quoted as saying that authorities in Warsaw should not be "fighting with" neighbouring Russia because others were benefitting from this and that Warsaw was “closer to Moscow than to New York.”

Wałęsa told Sputnik he was ready to visit Russia if invited, dorzeczy.pl reported.

"If I was invited, I'd certainly come, but there hasn't been any invitation," Wałęsa said in the interview, as quoted by the Russian news agency on its sputniknews.com website.

He added, according to sputniknews.com: "I have no counter-indications. I'd love to do it because I believe Putin is a wise man who just needs slightly different arguments."

Wałęsa was Poland’s president from 1990 to 1995.

Newly unearthed documents are “further confirmation” that Wałęsa, the legendary union leader who went on to become president, was once an informer for Poland's communist regime, a historian said this month.

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Source: dorzeczy.pl, sputniknews.com