‘Consiliere’ of the Kremlin in Poland
Marian Miszalski
The Russian President Dmitrij Medvedev paid a visit to Poland on his way to Brussels where he promoted a friendly image of Putin’s Russia in ‘the eyes of the west.’ Although Medvedev is the President of Russia (having wide formal competences) and Mr Putin is only its Prime Minister, nobody dare to think of ‘Medvedev’s Russia:’ not Medvedev, hired to organise legal services of the ‘Petersburg pact’ but Putin, who has always been a KGB man, is the true head of the Russian politics. Medvedev is rather its democratic ornament, some kind of a flower pinned on a fur coat. It seems that at any moment Putin could tell Medvedev what Marshal Pilsudzki told President Wojciechowski when the latter opposed his plans, ‘You, a candle, I have lit you and I will put you out…’
Such relationships occur in politics…
According to the secret American documents revealed on the portal of WikiLeaks the American diplomats thought that ‘the Kremlin lies at the very centre of a constellation of official and quasi-official rackets… Russia is a corrupt, autocratic kleptocracy centered on the leadership of Putin, in which officials, oligarchs and organised crime are bound together to create ‘a virtual mafia state’ in which ‘the Russian democracy has disappeared and the government was an oligarchy run by the security services.’
If we believe these secret, i.e. sincere, reports of the American diplomats, Poland hosted some kind of ‘consiliere’ from Francis Ford Coppola’s film ‘The Godfather.’
Restoring its political influences in Europe Russia strives for a close collaboration with the European Union and NATO, and its strategic partnership with Germany, made over ‘Brussels’, gives the Russian politics a justified hope to succeed. The bad relationships with Poland, a EU and NATO member, are on the way of such a close collaboration. These bad relationships do not result, however, from the Polish re-sentiments but from the Russian politics.
Unfortunately, Medvedev’s visit did not announce any breakthrough in this politics, but at the most some cosmetic treatment, estimated to change Russia’s image in the eyes of the public opinion of the West and to provide ‘propaganda food’ of the pro-Russian lobby in Poland that revealed itself so hastily after the plane crash at Smolensk, forcing some strange reconciliation: without any political contents and preliminary conditions.
Medvedev’s visit did not give any important stimulus for the investigation of the plane crash at Smolensk and for the demand to recognise the Katyn massacre as an act of genocide.
Its economic effects have not been known yet. According to the Russian proposals we were supposed to support the construction of the Russian nuclear power plant in Kalinigrad, thus destroying the plan of the construction of the Lithuanian nuclear power plant and being more dependent on the energy supplies from Russia. Russia also strives for a purchase of a block of shares of the Lotos Oil Group Gdansk, the effects of which would be similar. The government of Tusk wants to sell these shares, looking for investors from the West. Will the strategic German-Russian partnership not cause that such investors will be found in the European Union?… One can expect Berlin to collaborate with Moscow in building a friendly image of ‘the Russian democratic transformations’ and in looking black at the eventual ‘Polish sulks.’ It will be certainly easier for Berlin to discipline Tusk’s government under the Treaty of Lisbon and the amended Polish constitution.
It is worth remembering the historical diagnosis given by the true head of the Russian politics Mr Putin who in his famous speech at Westerplatte recognised the Treaty of Versailles of 1919 as the cause of evil in Europe because… the treaty humiliated Germany.
However, we should not interpret those words without realising their true contents: since the Treaty of Versailles of 1919 recognised and confirmed the sovereignty of the Central-Eastern European countries, including independent and sovereign Poland.
The international situation of Poland is getting worse. When the Americans strive to collaborate with Russia, being driven into a dead end by their pro-Israeli politics, the result of which is the conflict with the world of Islam, when the strategic German-Russian partnership has changed into a attempt to create new spheres of influences in Central-Eastern Europe, it is hard to have confidence that in the EU structures we will find enough strong allies to defend our interests.
Since… who but for, Poles, actually cares about Poland?
"Niedziela" 51/2010