Poland’s Russia Disaster

Original by Adam Śmiech published by Mysl Polska; translation by J.Hawk

J.Hawk’s Note: The article and the journal as a whole tends to reflect the views of the nationalist, euroskeptic, and NATO-skeptic portion of the electorate and political movements.

Reasserting the fact that Law and Justice (PiS) is pursuing Russophobic policies would be as banal as it would be true. Nevertheless, the chronicler’s duty and concern for future generations forces one to note and, what’s more, closely observe the advanced Russophobia of the current power elite. And there is a lot to observe.

PiS officialdom’s attitude toward Russia is a multi-dimensional expression of obsession to the point of irrational hatred toward all things Russian, in every case and under every pretext. Is the PiS Poland pursuing any kind of policy toward Russia? This is the most rhetorical of rhetorical questions. Yes, it is pursuing a policy if we consider primitive drum-beating a policy. Pretext? Any will do, but Russia’s very existence is the most effective one. These people whose voices tremble from (what they think is) patriotic fervor when they speak about Russia don’t even realize the weight of the former slave’s complext that is crushing them. Hence that hyper-patriotic word soup which is a mixture of unbearable pathos and martyr complex.

That’s the external expression of the “policy”? And what about the content? Is there some long-term or at least short-term objective? Nothing of the kind. The whole point is not “catching the rabbit but chasing it.” Hence the constant harping, the obligatory cutting remarks aimed at Russia even when discussing the most neutral of topics on the news and, most importantly, building an atmosphere of some monstrous threat emanating from Russia. What will be the effect of this stark irresponsibility?

At first, the last remaining ties between our countries will weaken, and ultimately the current power structure will lead to breaking off relations, perhaps quietly, by totally imposing a total freeze on all interactions. PiS had the chance to implement a change for the better (which was, incidentally, its campaign slogan) because, as Russia’s ambassador Sergey Andreyev correctly noted in an interview with Onet, it is the Donald Tusk and Ewa Kopacz team that began to freeze mutual relations in the name of struggle for UKraine, but the hope-inspired PiS filled the shoes of its predecessors and entered on the path of complete triumph or annihilation.

The fight against Russia is waged through the means of highly stepped up propaganda which is becoming ever more primitive, through internal actions like the war on monuments, and international policies which include screaming in front of the whole world about the need to have permanent NATO bases in Poland, not to mention the whole Smolensk issue. On the international arena, these actions are accompanied by pronouncements full of conviction of one’s power that border on hubris. I don’t even want to mention how the Minister’s of Defense blind admiration of NATO and the US has crossed the line into outright sycophancy of the sort that was rarely found in the Poland-USSR relations.

But let’s examine what Krzysztof Szczerski, the advisor to President Duda, said in the context of the NATO–Russia Council meeting. It starts well–“we are against isolating Russia.” But, but, here we have to abandon all hope because the usual follows–“which doesn’t mean we’re in favor of lifting the sanctions.” Plus the obligatory “Poland agreed to the Council meeting on the condition that the topic number 1 would be Ukraine.” Well, of course. Here the minister has some merit. Once we have thrown 4.5 billion zlotys into the mud by transferring them to the international gangsters “governing” Ukraine, one can’t be surprised by the concern…But that’s just my supposition, because Mr. Szczerski goes on to explain:

“We need to reestablish a channel of communications so that Russia would get from NATO a clear, unambiguous message that NATO is an alliance which will take care of the security of its immediate surroundings. NATO has the duty to tell the Russian partners that peace in Ukraine is in the obvious interest of the alliance.”

That’s a very interesting concept, and a very convenient one for NATO. So we have had 25 years of NATO approaching Russia’s borders, and in this situation the alliance is supposed to worry about the security of its surroundings? Meaning Ukraine, Belarus, Moldova, Caucasus, etc? Well, if Polish and some Western politicians imagine they will find a partner in Russia if that’s how they set the agenda, they are sorely mistaken. Now, it may be they are not mistaken but are doing it on purpose. But then they should not hide behind rhetoric about security but rather come out and say they intend to dominate Russia. But they won’t say it outright because it doesn’t look good in the media. In the meanwhile it amounts to a policy of escalating the new cold war and to raising the threat of a real war on a global scale.

Two cents were added by the reliable, when it comes to things Russia, Foreign Minister Witold Waszczykowski. At the Global Security Forum session in Bratislava, he said that “stationing of Western forces in Poland is not a provocation aimed at Russia. Instead, the absence of such forces would have been a provocation because it would have encouraged actions of the kind we have seen recently, including over the Baltic.”

Of course it would be no provocation, just as Russia’s bases in Mexico would not be a provocation, not to mention Russian destroyers leisurely sailing 70km off the coast of New York. But I forgot that the exceptional country plays by different rules.

Russophobes are thus taking us in the direction of a geopolitical catastrophe. They want a dramatic worsening of relations with Russia and, in order to complete the picture, they want to transform Poland into a frontline country. That would be a complete negation of not only the National Democrats concept of Polish foreign policy, but every other policy that aims at peaceful coexistence of big, medium, and small countries. All of that is taking place in a situation where Russia has been acting on the international arena in a manner befitting a civilized country, defending only its closest periphery against the bald-faced impertinence of its Western “partners”, while further afield, for example in Syria, intervening only upon the clear request of its lawful government. And it is not a threat to Poland…

I am not claiming that Russia is a paragon of virtue, but when compared to the actions of the US, which is pursuing the aim of establishing global hegemony, it is the country from beyond the Atlantic that looks far worse. Politicians who want to turn Poland into another US state ought to seriously think on that, instead of hiding behind a curtain of loud but empty rhetoric.