Polish Foreign Minister Jacek Chaputovic invited Russia to end the “historical” wars and start living in a good-neighborly manner. “Poland and Russia are neighboring countries, and normal relations should exist between our politicians and societies. Now these relations cannot be called good - they are tense, but we would like to improve them, ”says pan Chaputovich.
He asks Moscow to begin the "process of international reconciliation", "to conduct a general analysis of documents, to come to a common understanding of historical facts and our relations." Chaputovich wants to personally talk about this with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov - and do this before the May session of the Council of Europe ministers.
In Moscow, the initiative of the Polish minister was wary. “We hear completely different statements from the Sejm and the President of Poland. The minister’s words look like the opinion of an individual character, not built into public policy, ”says Oleg Morozov, member of the Federation Council Committee on Foreign Affairs. But at the official level they finally approved: according to the representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova, Russia “is always open to a normal and equal dialogue with Warsaw” and is absolutely not against holding meetings at the ministerial level. The main thing is that from these meetings "was the result."
And here the main snag in Chaputovich’s proposal. Realizing it, at first glance, a reasonable proposal will bring results, but only for Poland itself. “What Chaputovich said by the Minister does not mean at all that, in some general sense, the Polish side is ready for dialogue today and suggests the possibility of revising its position,” Dmitry Ofitserov-Belsky, senior researcher at IMEMO RAS, explained to the author. Neither in terms of real actions, nor in terms of rhetoric.
So, Chaputovich can warm the hearts of Russians as much as possible by recognizing the "huge, even major" role of the Soviet Union in the victory over the Nazis. He can reassure the Russian Ministry of Finance with promises that his country does not require any reparations from Moscow (which the spiritual leader of the Polish government, the leader of the ruling Law and Justice Party, Yaroslav Kaczynski, previously spoke about). In fact, Polish politics remains extremely Russophobic, including in the performance of Mr. Chaputovich.
So, the pan minister continues to drown against Russian infrastructure projects. He says that Nord Stream 2 “constitutes a threat to European solidarity and energy security” and “will strengthen dependence on an unreliable supplier, Gazprom.” In addition, the Polish Foreign Minister gladly announced the deployment of American troops in his country. According to Jacek Chaputovic, in Poland there will be "six to seven points" of the basing of American soldiers.
From whom freshly arriving American troops will defend Poland? From the Middle Eastern refugee divisions that Recep Erdogan sends to Europe?
Moscow understood if Warsaw asked the United States to protect the country from the consequences of further destabilization (and, it is possible, from the territorial collapse) of Ukraine, or to balance Germany, which is growing in the Old World. However, the Poles do not hide the fact that they need protection from “aggressive Russia”.
There is a dual position of Warsaw. On the one hand, back in December, Polish President Andrzej Duda claimed that Moscow was not an enemy of NATO. On the other hand, the “peacekeeper” Chaputovich literally a few days ago in Vilnius after the meeting of the “Bucharest Nine” (a group of countries that are the eastern flank of NATO) said that “Russia remains the most important problem and threat” and that all countries must deal with this threat. Including within the framework of NATO, whose main goal should be the prevention of a "military threat from the East."
And former Foreign Minister Witold Waszczikowski uses his current “free” status to express the simple aspirations of the Polish elite in simple Polish — that is, he calls for the introduction of the toughest sanctions against Russia and its society so that the Russians “feel the price of supporting Putin’s imperial regime or neutrality in relation to its imperial policy. ”
Poland is not going to change this policy - instead, it offers Russia to change its own approach to discussions with Warsaw. In fact, the Poles suggest that Moscow adopt the Polish (or rather, pan-European) historical narrative and engage in dialogue within its framework.
“Within the framework of the discussion, the rules of which were set by the Polish side, it is very difficult to argue, for example, the USSR decisions on the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. The discourse offered to us by the Poles - on the agreement of Hitler and Stalin on the division of Eastern Europe - is unifying for Poland, Romania, and the Baltic countries. Within its framework, we can only answer according to the principle “and you yourself”, which applies to Tieszyn Silesia, ”says Dmitry Ofitserov-Belsky. But we won’t be able to use it without mentioning the “scandalous and not well-known” events of the Polish-German conspiracy during the partition of Czechoslovakia, as a result of which the Poles got the Tieszyn region. And this is no longer part of the discourse offered to us by Poland and all of Europe, in which Poland is a victim of war.
“In such a discussion, it is difficult to truthfully argue our position with the fact that we sought to avoid participating in the war, with strategic motives, with the fact of the inevitable transformation (following the model of Czechoslovakia, Hungary or Romania) of other countries into German satellites. Soviet diplomacy was obliged to proceed from this, but to prove it, despite all the obviousness, is pointless now, ”continues Dmitry Ofitserov-Belsky.
That is why Moscow, most likely, will not reject Chaputovich’s proposals to “live in peace”, but at the same time will continue to wage a “historical” war with Warsaw in the conditions of a correct - not Polish, not pan-European, but universal and fair narrative. In the framework of which the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact was a necessary measure, a kind of consequence (including) of Warsaw's brainless policy of flirting with Hitler. Within which the Soviet Union, that modern Russia are not the enemy of Europe, but its integral part. And, finally, within the framework of which historical complexes and grievances (including just ones) should not be an obstacle to building normal, good-neighborly and mutually beneficial relations. If Warsaw is ready to conduct a dialogue in such a narrative, then we are always for it.
The author’s point of view may not coincide with the position of the publisher.