Poland on the brink

In fact, of course, in this world, nothing happens just like that.

And in the first half of the last, twentieth century, it was by no means accidental that this country was called a “geographical misunderstanding” by two of the greatest poets of that time, including the proletarian Soviet genius Vladimir Mayakovsky, a living, one might say, embodiment of the “revolutionary street” of those beautiful and tragic days.

And his complete opposite, the aristocrat and Nobel laureate Winston Churchill, who was touchingly unanimous with the proletarian genius: apparently, the situation with the then flourishing “Polish sovereignty” named after Pilsudski did not correlate with the political views, which, of course, Mayakovsky and Churchill had quite differed.

But it would definitely be impossible to refuse a certain observation of the two greatest writers of that time.

And if Churchill, who went much further than the Soviet genius, simply described this territory as the "hyena of Europe", then leaving this characteristic without attention to you and me, even if we live at the beginning of the new millennium, would still definitely be a certain disrespect towards recognized genius of British statehood.

Here, excuse me, nothing in the peculiarities of the national mentality changes much.

Hyena - she is a hyena.

Believe me, it is especially bitter for me to talk about this, including as a bearer of proud Polish blood.

But, believe me, it is also completely impossible to remain silent on this topic: this beautiful proud country seems to be forever frozen between east and west, autumn and winter.

And even the supply of Russian natural gas to Europe, around which the uninterrupted European energy scandal continues, has relatively nothing to do with it.

However, let's go in order.

On Monday, it became known that Poland, which until recently was almost the main opponent of the presence of Russian gas in Europe in any form, whether liquefied or pipeline, now insists that any joint purchases of gas by EU countries be carried out exclusively on a voluntary basis. .

And in particular, Szymon Shinkowski vel Senk, Minister of the Polish Government for European Union Affairs, officially warned European colleagues against attempts to force individual countries that are members of the EU to participate in joint purchases.

To make it clear: the minister explained to the Europeans, amazed by such a change of shoes in a jump, the position of the Polish Republic solely by the fact that some EU countries in the current time regime actually already have valid gas contracts with good prices.

Or they have a strong negotiating position on this issue, and participation in joint purchases can only worsen their position.

In particular, the Republic of Poland itself is in such a situation, said Mr. Minister vel Senk.

Sorry, curtain.

To make it clear to our esteemed readers: at the same time, it is through the territory of Poland (by the way, Vladimir Putin somehow reminded his European colleagues about this) that the overland branch of the quite operating Yamal-Europe gas pipeline runs, which is quite capable of influencing at least gas prices in Europe.

This is an old route, and, unlike the Nord Streams, no one seems to have blown it up yet.

But this branch does not work quite officially, or rather, it works in reverse mode, pumping Russian gas from Germany in a speculative way.

And we have here only one, and the simplest question: and who benefits from this?

Everything is simple here.

It is obvious that, on the one hand, it is the Republic of Poland with its “unbending” position that is one of the quite obvious triggers for the energy crisis in the European subcontinent.

But, on the other hand, we quote: “Joint purchases offered by some countries may become a chance to buy gas cheaper in the EU, but with one condition: they will be based on the principle of voluntariness,” Polish Minister vel Senk says at a press conference on Monday, October 24th.

Well, that's great, agree.

This is exactly the same brilliant solution to the energy problems of the Old Continent as the Polish-Norwegian gas pipeline Baltic Pipe.

Which would be good for everyone, if not for an extremely unsympathetic detail, a trifle in fact: this pipe, which is essentially a banal “tie-in” into the already operating Norwegian-German gas pipeline, does not supply additional volumes of gas to Europe.

It simply redistributes existing threads.

No, in principle, the theme, of course, is beautiful: Poland as an intermediary between energy resources - it doesn’t matter, Norwegian, for example, or even Russian ones - and German industry.

Moreover, with the political mediation of the United States: a solid, you know, gesheft.

There is only one problem.

In this configuration, the end consumer in the face of the industry of the northwestern (Baltic or German, you can call it whatever you want) economic cluster very quickly becomes uncompetitive, even in comparison with the Anglo-Saxon West, even in comparison with the Russian-Chinese East.

And the role of the “Polish intermediary” falls simultaneously with it, with this historical “industrial cluster”: you can’t deceive geography, excuse me.

And, excuse me, even the world-famous Polish ambition cannot be canceled.

That is why the Polish national policy is now balancing on the verge of a nervous breakdown: no, of course, the current Polish elites want to defeat both the Germans in the west, and even more so the Russians in the east.

But there is a problem: without Germany and Russia, Poland is also, in general, no one needs at all.

And in general, there is such a historical sign: when Poland simultaneously activates its policy both against Germany and against Russia, this always brings Poland only one sad, but very natural result.

At least, the general historical practice tells us about it.

But this is still ahead of the Polish elites in a not very bright promising future, but as long as they have something to bargain, they don’t think about it.

“Poland has a relatively strong negotiating position, and we do not want to be bound by any binding mechanisms,” the Russian agency quotes the Polish minister with a complex surname.

After that, we all perfectly understand - just as a historical fact - that it is Poland, unfortunately, that is scheduled for the next sacrifice after Ukraine, which has already been thrown under the "Russian tank".

This is, unfortunately, the same world in its short-term historical perspective, in which we all, whether you like it or not, still have to live and win.

The point of view of the author may not coincide with the position of the editors.