Former Polish President Lech Walesa, and now the leader of the independent Solidarity trade union, has unveiled the contents of a conversation with 42nd US President Bill Clinton in 1993 regarding Warsaw and Washington’s relationship with Russia.
In a conversation with Clinton, the former Polish president discussed joint steps to contain Moscow after the collapse of the USSR.
“After decades of Soviet domination, we are all afraid of Russia. If Russia again adopts an aggressive foreign policy, this aggression will be directed against Ukraine and Poland. We need America to prevent this, ”Valenca said.
After that, he turned to Clinton with a request to help Warsaw with “American muscles,” while inviting Washington to support political and economic reforms in the new Russia.
“Our goal should be to create Russia, which will not be either too poor or too rich, because very poor Russia and very rich Russia are the most dangerous,” emphasized Walesa.
RISI Leading Researcher Oleg Nemensky in an interview with RT said that the content of this conversation is not a sensation, but only demonstrates the historical continuity of various Polish governments in their attitude to Russia.
“This is a banal conversation, because Poland has always demonstrated that it lives in fear of Russia. In addition, at that time Warsaw had a fear that Moscow would establish relations with the West. Poland itself was preoccupied with transit and integration into the Western community, but without Russia. Warsaw then did everything possible to worsen relations between Moscow and the United States, to undermine the implementation of the foreign policy pursued by the Russian leadership. And the Polish politicians succeeded in many ways, ”said the expert.
In turn, Vadim Trukhachev, a lecturer at the Department of Foreign Regional Studies and Foreign Policy of the Historical Archive Institute of the Russian State Humanitarian University, believes that by publishing this conversation, Walesa defends herself against attacks from politicians of the ruling party.
“The ruling party accuses him of allegedly being an agent of the KGB. Walesa, on the other hand, demonstrates that he is a Polish patriot who has always defended the interests of Poland, thinking about how to “reduce” the Russian threat, ”the political analyst explained in an interview with RT.
Controversial position
It is worth noting that the conversation with Bill Clinton Lech Walesa made public just a few days after he gave an extensive interview to the Russian publication "Interlocutor", in which many of his statements can be regarded as pro-Russian.
- Lech Walesa
- Reuters
- © Kacper Pempel
So, Walesa criticized the position of the Polish authorities, according to which Warsaw has the “unconditional” right to demand reparations from Moscow for “war crimes” during the Second World War.
“It’s the same as I would demand to return my young years to me. But they have already passed. Yes, and if we calculate everything wisely, it will be one to one. Going forward is important, ”said Valenca.
He called on Russia and Poland to engage in dialogue, because "when people talk, you can discuss problems and find ways to solve them."
“But even now these relations can be made good. In our countries, they should be like that. When we fight, only third forces win. From Warsaw it was always closer to Moscow than to Washington, ”the former Polish president added.
This is not the only case in which Walesa criticized the actions of the Polish authorities and the ruling Law and Justice party towards Moscow.
In August 2019, he said that the authorities should have invited Russian leader Vladimir Putin to events marking the 80th anniversary of the outbreak of World War II.
“Without inviting Russia, we will only worsen our already bad relations,” the politician said in an interview with Rzeczpospolita, adding that if you have any objections, you should talk with the other side, and not isolate it.
According to Oleg Nemensky, Walesa is a consistent critic of the current Polish authorities, and relations with Russia are one of the central issues in which the ex-president disagrees with the current ruling party.
“Walesa always spoke in favor of normalizing relations with Russia, advocated for the establishment of economic ties between the countries, but at the same time always warned the West about the“ danger ”from Moscow. Now that the Polish-Russian relations are frozen, Walesa appears as an active critic of the current Polish government, with whom he has a rather bad relationship. In this case, Russia is a convenient topic with the help of which it can criticize the ruling party “Law and Justice,” the political scientist explained.
In the wake of the USA
According to analysts, both in the early 1990s and now Poland is consistently pursuing a course towards rapprochement with the United States, especially in the military-political sphere. So, on January 31, 2020 Warsaw signed a contract to purchase 32 F-35 fighters from the United States. The transaction value is about $ 4.6 billion.
- Rally in Warsaw
- Reuters
- © Agencja Gazeta / Adam Stepien
The contract for the purchase of the F-35 is not the first major purchase by Warsaw of American weapons. In 2018, Poland entered into a deal with the United States to supply Patriot air defense systems in the amount of $ 4.75 billion.
In addition to the purchase of American weapons, Poland is constantly demonstrating to the United States its interest in expanding the American military contingent stationed on its territory. Polish politicians even expressed their readiness to allocate $ 2 billion from the country's budget for the construction of a permanent American base, but this plan was never implemented.
Instead of building the base at the end of September 2019, U.S. President Donald Trump and Polish President Andrzej Duda during a meeting on the sidelines of the 4th session of the UN General Assembly in New York signed a declaration providing for an increase in the contingent of US troops in Poland. According to the document, another 4,500 military will join the 4,500 US troops already deployed in Poland on a rotational basis.
After meeting with Trump and signing the declaration, Duda said that such actions are an “adequate reaction” to Russian politics.
According to Vadim Tukhachev, Warsaw’s anti-Russian phobias are many hundreds of years old, and at the end of the 20th century they were reborn and reminded of themselves after the collapse of socialism.
“Certainly, the Polish authorities have historical continuity in the desire to implement anti-Russian policies from behind the US back. The degree of bad attitude towards Russia can only vary, ”the expert emphasized.
And in the coming decades this course will not change, Trukhachev believes.
“Russia will to one degree or another exist as an existential enemy. Changes can occur if Russia takes Poland seriously, registers it in the concept of foreign policy as a country that constantly harms Moscow, and which can do some harm in the future. The Polish elite has taken a course to settle accounts with Russia, making a reservation that it is ready for dialogue, ”the political scientist concluded.