Welcome to the refugees

Nicolas Tenzer, on the Poland-Belarus standoff:

The use by the criminal regime of Belarus of migrants, who were purposely brought to this country, is one of the worst abominations of recent months. Most of them are people who are persecuted by murderous regimes and are looking for the slightest opportunity to flee and should be considered as refugees. This tactic, which is an exploitation of the misery of human beings, should not make us forget—because it is also one of Lukashenka’s aims—the brutal repression of this illegitimate president against his opponents.

Read the whole article here

The Silence of Russia

In Grani, Vitaly Portnikov writes about what he sees as a breakdown in the centuries-old relationship between the peoples of Ukraine and Russia:

Because the Russians are silent. They are silent when the people they so love to call brothers are being killed, tortured, humiliated, abducted from hospitals; all of it, of course, in the name of order and friendship with Russia, but even so. They are silent when the rallies are broken up. They are silent when the land so close to them is being brought to the precipice of a real war. In the whole vast country only a few dozen people are capable of getting out to the Ukrainian embassy or anywhere else to signal their protest and support.

This is a historic indifference. A new Ukraine may still emerge, but it will never have a mutual understanding with Russia at the level of values.The silence –  not even that of people, but of an entire nation that claims shared roots and a common outlook on the world – will, at the most crucial moment for Ukrainians, create a very real chasm of alienation that will not be so easy to fill in again.

What is happening today between Ukraine and Russia is precisely what once happened between Russia and Poland, or Russia and Finland...

NATO’s plans for defence of E. Europe

Ahead of the annual NATO summit to be held in Lisbon on November 19 , the Polish daily newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza has published information about NATO’s new plans for the defence of Poland and the Baltic States in the event of a Russian aggression.  Nine divisions, of which four are Polish form part of the plan. In addition to these a  further five divisions will be transported to Eastern Europe with British, American and German units by land and sea links.  Observationsplatsen has more details.

Anne Applebaum

Anne Applebaum, on how a problem with her car in Warsaw was transformed by Polish, Estonian and British media into an international incident.

Hat tip: Marius

Iran, Russia, Israel, the U.S. and the West

According to the Sunday Times, the purpose of  Benjamin Netanyahu's visit to Moscow last month was to hand the Kremlin a list of Russian scientists Israel believes is helping Iran to build a nuclear warhead.

Another report, from opinia.us, suggests there are signs that the US State Department and the White House may have been duped by Russian propaganda experts into making the announcement of the cancellation of the Bush plan to build missile defence systems in Poland and the Czech Republic on September 17. September 17 was the date of the 70th anniversary of the Soviet invasion of Poland at the beginning of WWII.

70th anniversaries

The recent Independent article by Norman Davies analyzing the real causes of World War II, which essentially sees the source of the actual conflict as the signing of the Nazi-Soviet Pact of August 23, 1939, ends with a listing of upcoming anniversaries on which the Medvedev/Putin government in Moscow is going to find it hard to maintain silence:

As the Russian government must realise, however, Poland will only be the start of a long, uncomfortable season. After Poland, it will be Finland's turn, and the 70th anniversary of the Winter War. Stalin's aggression against Finland in November 1939 was every bit as blatant as his actions against Poland. His German partner was not involved, and the despatch of a million troops into a neighbouring country to deport the entire population of the frontier area can hardly be described as the doings of a neutral well-wisher. It led to the expulsion of the USSR from the League of Nations. And after Finland, there will be Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Romania. At every stage, there will be scenes of peace-loving tanks, of executions and deportations, and of weeping patriots.

Russia blames Poland for starting World War II

A few days ago the official website of Russia's Ministry of Defence published a 4,000 word article by a Russian military historian in which Poland was accused of not acceding of Hitler's demands, and thereby starting World War II, AP reports. The article, entitled  "Fictions and Falsifications in Evaluating the USSR's Role On the Eve of World War II," tells the story of how, before the Nazi invasion of Poland on September 1 1939, Hitler demanded that Poland hand over control of the city of Danzig, and also the land corridor between Germany and the territory now known as Kaliningrad.

"Everyone who has studied the history of the Second World War without prejudice knows that it began because of Poland's refusal to satisfy the German claims," the article's author states. Although the item has now been removed from the Defence Ministry's site, it can still be read in Russian here.

Chavez bars entry to Walesa

Venezuela's Hugo Chavez has said that Polish Solidarity union leader and Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Lech Walesa will be denied entry to Venezuela if he attempts to lend his support to opposition groups. Via VHeadline.com:

Calling Walesa an "Idol with feet made of mud," President Chavez went on national television to admonish the Foreign Minister:  "Nicolas, beware! Evaluate and give me recommendations on how to react!" The text of the President's speech was also made available in a transcript of the broadcast circulated by the Venezuelan Ministry of Communication & Information (Minci), which is generally seen as the government's mouthpiece.

• According to the Minci text Chavez said "We are obliged to demand respect for Venezuela's dignity. He (Walesa) can say whatever he wants abroad, but NOT in here in Venezuela."  Chavez also claimed that the former Polish President is part of an international "plot that aims to generate a violent path" to overthrow his revolutionary government.

Polish TV crew detained near Gori

Gazeta.ru reports that two members of a Polish television crew have been detained by Russian soldiers near the Georgian town of Gori. All the crew's equipment was seized and confiscated, and Polish media say that the two Polish citizens, who were driven off to an undisclosed location, have been classed by the local authorities as prisoners of war.

Russia threatens nuclear attack on Poland

The response of General Anatoly Nogovitsyn, to Poland's signing the missile shield agreement with the United States:

General Anatoly Nogovitsyn said that any new US assets in Europe could come under Russian nuclear attack with his forces targeting "the allies of countries having nuclear weapons".

He told Russia's Interfax news agency: "By hosting these, Poland is making itself a target. This is 100 per cent certain. It becomes a target for attack. Such targets are destroyed as a first priority."  (The Telegraph)

US and Poland sign missile agreement

The BBC reports that the United States and Poland have signed a preliminary agreement for the US to base 10 missile interceptors in Poland in exchange for help in strengthening Polish air defences.

Realignment in Europe

One or two links to consider:

http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/02/19/news/shield.php

Poland and Czech Republic risk being targets of Russian missiles,Moscow says
The Associated Press

Published: February 19, 2007

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/19/AR2007021900473.html

Missiles could reach Europe if Kremlin wanted: general

http://www.rg.ru/2007/02/19/poljsha.html

Spisok Kachinskikh (Lech Kaczynski’s report)

The Pact

An in-depth report in Spiegel Online examines the real motive power behind the present Polish government, which is often accused of mismanagement, incoherence and demagoguery. These accusations, it seems, miss the point: the instability and division characteristic of modern Poland are a result of the very forces the present government, led by the Kaczynski brothers, is trying to defeat. For Poland, like a number of other East European post-Soviet democracies, is still in the grip of economic and political interests that go back to pre-1989 days, and the rule of the Communist party. In such a situation, friends and enemies are hard to tell apart.

In the spring of 1989, dissidents managed to negotiate a bloodless transfer of power with the communists. Some would say it was a political tour de force. After all, Soviet troops were still stationed in Poland and the Berlin Wall was still standing at the time.

But the Kaczynski brothers and the supporters of their cause say that the transition was not a coup. They argue that the communists quickly figured out how to regroup and, with the help of the country’s intelligence agencies, managed to place their favorites in key positions in the economy.

The twins hope to destroy this network of former party cadres, big business and the Mafia, thereby making good on one of their campaign promises. Not only do they have post-communist careerists in their sights, but also former members of the opposition, such as the group of intellectuals led by publisher Adam Michnik. In their view, Michnik’s newspaper, Gazeta Wyborcza, promoted a policy of deliberately glossing over the past for 18 years, thereby enabling the communists to return to positions of power. The term the twins use for the alliance that they believe dominated the Third Republic is “the pact.”

Elsewhere, EarthTimes news has an item on how Poland’s recently reformed Military Intelligence Service (WSI) significantly overstepped its jurisdiction by infiltrating political parties, the media and state-owned companies up for privatization.

Strange, but True

From the FT:

It’s lucky for Vladimir Putin that the disorganised Polish government didn’t send anybody senior to the Munich security conference where the Russian president unleashed an attack on the US.

If Jaroslaw Kaczynski, Poland’s prime minister, had been in the Bavarian capital, fisticuffs could have taken place between the two leaders, according to Marek Kuchinski, parliamentary leader of the ruling Law and Justice party.

It’s unclear how the diminutive and portly Polish premier would have fared against the Russian judo black belt.

That said, Putin may have been spared a worse fate by the absence of Radoslaw Sikorski, Poland’s freshly dismissed defence minister, who once joined with the Mujahideen resistance during a 1987 reporting trip to Afghanistan covering the Soviet invasion.

(via Marius)