Poland aims to split Ukraine to push Russia aside

Poland wishes to become Ukraine's lobbyist in the European Union

It is an open secret that Poland played a very active part during the political crisis in Ukraine. Polish President Aleksander Kwasniewski  was spending days and nights in Kiev watching the situation. The Polish administration contributed a lot to the long process, which eventually ended up with three election rounds. The Ukrainian events allowed Warsaw to demonstrate its political potential to the EU and the USA. Poland is obviously claiming to become an informal leader of East European states.

Despite its active role during the “orange revolution” in Ukraine, the Polish administration will have to spend much energy to substantiate its position. In the meantime, Poland is experiencing great problems with that: the unemployment level is about to reach 19 percent in the country. Needless to say that it is rather difficult to fulfill political and economic ambition if it hardly has any grounds. 

What advantages does Poland want to gain from the Ukrainian events? Does it want to take Moscow's place, or become Ukraine's lobbyist in the European Union? It brings up the idea that Poland would like to share the art of democratic governing with Ukraine.

The political crisis in Ukraine stirred up chauvinistic sentiments among certain representatives of political, public and scientific circles. The abstract article written by Marian Kalusky, a Polish historian, can be a bright example of that. The article was published in Wirtualna Polonia at the end of February.

Mr. Kalusky lives very far both from Poland and Ukraine – he resides in Australia. However, his argumentation perfectly exemplifies the psychology of a common provincial, proud but offended Polish citizen. The Polish historian sees the crafty designs of the enemy everywhere: Russia as an “imperialist state,” the USA, which always uses Poland as a cover, and even Ukraine. It does not seem to be really surprising, though: Poland has been suffering from ongoing attacks of Ukrainian nationalists. 

The powerful intellect of the Australian Polish citizen found a way to solve the problem: Poland must follow its national interests first and foremost. The Polish government, the historian believes, should support the division of Ukraine into Russian-speaking and the Ukrainian-speaking parts. Russia may take the Russian part, whereas the second part is supposed to become a buffer state to protect Europe from the Russian imperialism.

This is definitely a nonsensical opinion. However, this nonsense is being publicly exposed. Moreover, it finds a lot of followers too: opinion polls say that the majority of Polish citizens have a certain dislike against Russians and Ukrainians.

It is noteworthy that some Polish figures were amazed with Marian Kalusky's article. They immediately believed that the historian was an agent of the Federal Security Bureau.