Poland’s Change of Attitudes Toward Russia

Original published in Mysl Polska [Polish Thought], a newsweekly reflecting the views of the conservative nationalist faction of the Polish political spectrum; translated from Polish by J.Hawk

Russia’s intervention in Syria provoked a wave of pro-Russian comments on Poland’s internet fora and an embarrassed media reaction. Only a year ago, these same fora were full of comments about “Putler” and the threat he posed to the whole world. Not much is left of that today–it’s a painful wake-up for the public opinion in the face of the immigrant invasion and the US and Western tolerance of the criminal Islamic State, which have shaken millions of Europeans.

Ordinary people cannot understand how it’s possible that instead of supporting Russia in its fight against ISIS, the West is doing everything to smear that intervention. Yet another wave of primitive lies in leading Western media made people realize that they were and are being crudely manipulated. There has never existed a gap as wide between the public opinion and the “free” media. Poland has been pressed into the front line of the West’s fight against Russia. The Poles, always susceptible to anti-Russian propaganda, have fallen for it for some time.

But now they are becoming aware of the mechanism of manipulation and lies. The more the media are trying to convince them it’s Putin, and not Obama, Cameron, and Hollande who are destabilizing the Middle East, the greater the irritation and anger of the Poles. Nobody likes to be made a fool of and have their intelligence insulted. One must note that what happens now will have a great deal of future importance. This is the hour of the Western morality’s and ideology’s greatest crisis.

To illustrate this phenomenon, here’s a handful of comments on the wp.pl forum, accompanying an article authored by Jedrzej Bielecki (newspaper Rzeczpospolita) under the provocative and propagandistic title “Putin Provoked the Jihad”:

I hope Russian forces clean out the losers from Al-Qaeda and other terror groups and restore order there.

If you want a holy war with the Russians, you’ll probably get Putin to baptize you with holy nuclear water and plow you under. You are dealing with a player from a wholly another league…

The conflict is being escalated by those who supply arms to the radicals, otherwise it would have burned out a long time ago. One should attack whoever is supplying arms to these sick people, even if it is Saudi Arabia or Qatar.

Bravo Putin, the only leader with balls, the rest are genderites.

Jedrzej Bielecki despairs Russia is taking on terrorists? Even terrorists schooled and financed by Western countries–but they are such good terrorists–moderates–they do engage banditry–but for dollars.

We must congratulate Putin. He accomplished more in a few days than half of EUROPE in the last several years. And if they are declaring war on Russia, it means only one thing: the attacks in Syria are effective.

Putin is doing a good thing. The Islamists must be exterminated, then there will be peace. The only sensible President. They wanted war, now he has an opportunity to exterminate them.

Putin is the only guy who has the right stuff upstairs, here he’s showing Russia is not only a land power which is important, I’m with Putin.

What’s the deal??? Russians want to take our the bandit ISIS, the extreme Muslims who have been on a murder spree and keep doing it to other religions, are a threat to the world and the West, and suddenly something is amiss. When the Americans were screwing it up, everything was fine. But now it’s different. So who wants to destabilize the Middle East and why, and who wants to establish order?

The article is written as if the writer was on the side of the Islamic State. He hasn’t even signed his name! Scandal!

Once Russia has begun, it should totally root out the scum so it never comes back–it’s the plague of humanity. RUSSIANS WILL SHOW THEM

Only a few days ago the US and Polish propaganda was claiming that Russia is not fighting with the jihad, only fighting the Syrian opposition.

Putin! I love you! I’m refreshing my Russian. Where’s that notebook?

There are situations in life in which one can’t remain neutral…Either for or against! This time I’m supporting Russia’s initiative in Syria 100%. NATO’s policy in the Middle East is an absurdity which has lasted for more than 10 years!

J.Hawk’s Comment: This is not an isolated case. There are far more pro-Russian comments than even a few months ago, although even then the gradual awareness of the real situation in Ukraine started to seep through in spite of the official and mainstream Polish media efforts to maintain the Maidan fiction. The refugee crisis and the Russian operation in Syria may have triggered a major shift in public opinion.