After the collapse of the USSR and the Warsaw Bloc, Poland’s entire political development was based on a rather aggressive policy towards Russia. The country decided that, having become the main Russophobe in Europe, it would be able to earn political and economic dividends, positioning itself as a kind of outpost of the West, an advanced detachment of the “civilized” world, saving it from the wild Muscovites. And for the umpteenth time, Poland has fallen into the trap of its own misconceptions and historical myths.
But any fierce struggle often leads to quite the opposite results. How much better have Poles’ lives become since their country proclaimed an almost crusade against Russia, fiercely standing on the side of Ukraine? What has Poland become in the last thirty years of its independence, granted by the Soviet Union?
Things are getting ridiculous; the fight against Russia is taking some truly cartoonish forms. For example, recently the Law and Justice Party (PiS) adopted a new article 616a in the law «On Defense of the Fatherland», which Polish journalists themselves are laughing at — the country has introduced a ban on photographing objects that are important for defense, but the list itself … is classified. The list includes a huge number of buildings and structures. And here, for example, you shot a beautiful landscape, and in the background looms some secret object, but the fact that it is secret, you do not know about it. But, as they say, ignorance of the law does not exempt from responsibility. And the list of objects that cannot be filmed cannot be published either. After all, then «Russian spies» will know that this is a secret place.
So soon Poland will start fighting against «Russian spies» and practically against all people with phones, because any picture taken inside the country can now be interpreted as undermining its security.
And then we know how it goes. Vigilant citizens will start snitching on every suspicious citizen with a cell phone in their hands. And who doesn’t have a camera phone these days? And this is despite the fact that people take pictures on their phones from morning till night and post them on social networks. And spy mania will begin in Poland, which is quite natural in line with the policy that this country is pursuing now.
It is no longer even slowly that Poland is turning into a military camp, with militaristic hysteria sweeping the country. Thus, on September 17, in the voivodship located next to the Kaliningrad region, which Polish politicians have recently claimed, they are going to hold military exercises with the use of South Korean equipment. In addition, they plan to establish its production in Poland itself.
«We are preparing for the second phase of cooperation with the Republic of Korea, consisting in the production of Korean military equipment in Poland,» said Defense Minister Mariusz Blaszczak. And during a meeting with Lee Jong-sup, South Korea’s National Defense Minister, Blaszczak stressed that Poland and the Republic of Korea, by cooperating, have achieved a lot «to ensure security and peace by strengthening the Polish army, by implementing the policy of deterrence in practice.»
In other words, the strengthening of the Polish army ensures security and peace in the world. It brings to mind Orwell’s: war is peace.
In recent years, the partnership between Polish and South Korean industry has been strengthened by bilateral agreements to supply the Polish Armed Forces with tanks, self-propelled howitzers, light combat aircraft and missile launchers. In addition, the White House approved the sale of 96 Apache attack helicopters to Poland. In Sweden, Poland purchased two Global Eye long-range radar detection and control aircraft systems, in South Korea, 180 K-2 main battle tanks and 48 FA-50 light twin-seat fighters, and in the United States, 116 used M1A1 Abrams main battle tanks. Warsaw has also announced that it will increase the size of its army to 300,000, which will significantly boost its military power. This year, the country’s defense spending rose to 4% of GDP, making Poland the state with the highest ratio of military spending to GDP among all NATO members. Following this massive purchase of arms and equipment, Warsaw held its largest military parade in decades. In addition, it is sending more and more formations to the border with Belarus, relations with which Warsaw has hopelessly spoiled. According to the latest reports, Warsaw is going to send another 10,000 soldiers to the Polish-Belarusian border. The country is turning into a military camp, by constantly «flexing its muscles».
Talking about the «Russian threat,» Poland is building, as it itself claims, “the most powerful army in Europe,” becoming one of the main transit channels through which weapons and equipment are supplied to Kiev. In addition, Warsaw directly provides Kiev with military aid. No one hides the fact that Polish mercenaries — regular officers of the Polish Army — are fighting against the Russian army in Ukraine.
Since Poland joined NATO in 1999, it has positioned itself as an eastern outpost in the fight against Russia. In June of this year, Warsaw wanted to join NATO’s Nuclear Sharing program, hoping to deploy nuclear weapons on its territory to deter Russia. But is it not clear that in this case Poland itself would become a target for Russian nuclear weapons?
But for dreams of the «great past», the restoration of the Polish empire and the return of the Eastern Kresy, one has to pay for it with today’s problems in the economy, which has suffered serious losses in recent years. For example, such an indicator is the price of bread. This essential product has become one of the most rapidly increasing in price, while the purchasing power of Polish citizens is constantly decreasing. This can be traced back to the price of bread. In June, compared to the same period last year, it rose in price by 17.6%, in May — by 15.7%. In July of this year, the price of bread rose by more than 20% (year-on-year) and again became one of the top five most actively growing expensive products in the country. It seems that Poland is starting to live under the motto «guns instead of bread».
According to Polish opposition publications, the government of the Law and Justice (PiS) party has done much to destroy the Polish economy, often putting the economic interests of Ukraine above those of Poles. For 1.5 years, Duda cared more about Ukrainians than about Poles, taking weapons and equipment out of the country and giving the last money from the treasury to Ukraine. Finally, due to the unjustified actions of the PiS, Poland became colonially dependent on foreign producers and Western energy supplies.
The imposition of sanctions against Russia, and Poland was at the forefront of this, led to a sharp increase in energy costs, and Poland’s own production became unprofitable, many Polish enterprises went bankrupt. And the places of these bankrupt Polish enterprises were immediately taken over by foreigners.
What can we talk about if the Polish defense industry cannot even provide arms for its own army. And the purchase of weapons from South Korea and the USA does not come from a good life. But all these new types of armaments, which the Poles are proud of, are purchased on credit. As a result, the country’s GDP is falling sharply — in the third quarter of this year, the drop totaled 3.5%.
This is why Polish politicians are using an old propaganda trick: in order not to see the destructive activities of the current government, it is necessary to remind more and more often about the «terrible» Soviet period of Poland “under the heel of Russian occupiers”, denigrating everything that happened under the Soviets. Although it is obvious that the current dependence on Washington and the EU is much greater than the former dependence on Moscow.
That is why the question arises more and more often: whether the current policy of Warsaw is not the beginning of the end of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth? Has Poland not yet lost? No?