November 28, 2007 (the date of publication in Russian)
Grigory Tinsky
BACK TO SOUND POLICY
New Polish government to harmonize foreign relations
On November 16, 2007, the executive power in Poland was eventually conveyed to the coalition of Civic Platform (PO) and the Polish Peasants' Party (PSL) which won the October 21 elections of Poland's Parliament (Sejm). The transition was hampered with a number of scandals – like any political development involving the two infamous twins, Lech and Jaroslaw Kaczynski.
At first, mass media spread rumors that President Lech Kaczynski was going to impede nomination of several ministers, though that is not considered by the constitution. Eventually, the President displayed kindness and approved all the nominations, proposed by the coalition. However, his twin brother tried to sabotage the procedure. He just refused to attend the traditional ceremony of handover of the Office, entrusting these duties to a minister without portfolio. Jaroslaw Kaczynski was definitely reluctant to yield the power to the winners.
In his turn, Lech Kaczynski ignored another tradition, neglecting the accession address delivered by new Prime Minister Donald Tusk. Though the Constitution does not include a relevant provision, the head of state used to be present at this ceremony. But Lech Kaczynski used the pretext of troubles of the young democracy of Georgia to spend this day in Tbilisi.
Thus, both twins displayed childish envy, much amusing the Poles and Europe. However, their further undertakings were too serious for juvenile behavior.
THE STOLEN MILITARY INTELLIGENCE FILES
In the midst of political transition, Kaczynski's subordinates hurried to evacuate the archives of WSI, Military Information Service (Wojskowa Sluzba Informacyjna), from the Defense Ministry's building to the President's Office. The operation was carried out at night, resembling Yan Fleming's novels – namely, on the last night before the resignation of Jaroslaw Kaczynski's government.
WSI fulfills the functions of military intelligence and counterintelligence. Until Kaczynski's ascent to power, WSI was subordinated to the Minister of Defense. The twins dismantled this institution on the grounds of the conclusions of Antoni Macierewicz's special commission tasked to "clean the country from the holdover of post-Communist mafia".
Antoni Macierewicz, 59, played an important role in Poland's contemporary history. A historian by education and an active member of the political underground in 1980s, he became famous in the capacity of Minister of Interior in the government of Jan Olszewski in 1991-92. At that time, he published the list of Polish politicians which, as he claimed, had served as agents of the Security Service of Communist Poland. This list included the names of then-leading figures of Poland- President Lech Walesa and the Sejm's Chairman Wieslaw Chrzanowski.
On July 22, 2006, Jaroslaw Kaczynski appointed Mr. Macierewicz to the position of Deputy Minister of Defense, entrusting him to liquidate WSI and establish a new counterintelligence service. A month later, Mr. Macierewicz declared that most of Poland's Ministers of Foreign Affairs were "agents of Soviet special services".
The document, prepared on the materials of WSI scrutiny, was known as The Macierewicz Report, and aroused a scandal as massive as that of 1992. One of the consequences of the report's public disclosure was resignation of Defense Minister Radek Sikorski, who claimed that Mr. Macierewicz had not only mounted false charges on Polish politicians but also disclosed some sensitive intelligence data.
After the victory of the centrist-leftist coalition, Mr. Macierewicz displayed reluctance to leave the post of chairman of the commission on WSI scrutiny. He had obtained his duties of the commission's chairman in the capacity of Vice Premier, but after the elections, he was just an ordinary MP, and therefore, he had no constitutional right to chair any governmental agency. However, Mr. Macierewicz referred to the provision stating that the chairmanship of the Commission is determined by the President, who also selects twelve of its twenty-four members.
Eventually, Mr. Macierewicz lost the post of the Commission's chairman. However, Lech Kaczynski replaced him by his own 82-year advisor Jan Olszewski, who had chaired the Government when Macierewicz published his infamous list of suspicious politicians (1992).
Jan Olszewski's biography is clear from suspicion. A former participant of the Warsaw Insurrection, he was known in Communist Poland as a popular lawyer, defending almost all of the prominent anti-Communist dissidents, including Lech Walesa. In 1995, Olszewski undertook an attempt to run for Presidency, but garnered not more than 6.86%, being defeated by Aleksander Kwasniewski. Later, he became an extreme rightist political figure, establishing a number of minor political parties of a profile resembling Kaczynski's Law and Justice Party (PiS).
Regarding Olszewski's age, it is obvious that he will fulfill rather the function of a frontman, while the Commission is going to be still unofficially steered by Antoni Macierewicz.
In his turn, new Prime Minister Daniel Tusk rotated the twelve members of the Commission whose selection was in his competence, and appointed a new Director of military intelligence, Col. Grzegorz Reszka. In the earlier structure of WSI, he served as Vice Director; after the agency was dismantled, he served as an advisor of the Director of the Domestic Security Agency (Agencja Bezpieczenstwa Wewnetrznego).
Besides, Donald Tusk tasked the Minister of Defense, along with the new Director of Military Intelligence and Security Service Control Advisor Pawel Gras to investigate all the circumstances of the evacuation of classified documentation from the Defense Ministry's office. In his interview to Gazeta Wyborcza, Pawel Gras expressed his commitment to fulfill the Prime Minister's task: "I am going to meet with the new chairman of the Commission, to clarify its membership (which is kept in secret) and to find out what else this Commission has to do more, and how much time this requires. I believe it won't take more than six months" (he meant the term for which the leaving Prime Minister prolonged the Commission's duties).
In his turn, new Defense Minister Bogdan Klich promised to undertake urgent measures in order to return the documentation to his office, and to check whether the documents were copied. He admits that the stolen documents contained personnel files of intelligence officers, as well as personal data of agents operating in Poland and outside the country.
Obviously, Kaczynski's circle needed these materials for their own political benefit which they regard as more significant than state interests, as well as physical security of officers and agents, considered as a small coin in the political game.
THE NEW FACE OF POLAND'S GOVERNMENT: EXPECTED AND UNEXPECTED FEATURES
On November 15, twenty-five days after the election, the new Government was sworn into office. It is comprised of 19 ministers, including Donald Tusk. The nominees were named at once: obviously, the cadre decisions had been prepared in advance.
The distribution of portfolios in the new coalition's cabinet runs as follows:
1. Donald Tusk – Prime Minister, and Chair of Committee for European Integration (this coincidence reflects the significance of European cooperation for the new team).
2. Grzegorz Schetyna – Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Internal Affairs and Administration. One of the leaders of PO party, close ally of Donald Tusk.
3. Waldemar Pawlak, 48, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy, is the chairman of PSL. He has already been twice entrusted the duties of Prime Minister. In the first occasion, this mission ended before starting. Receiving the task of forming the Government from President Lech Walesa on June 5, 1992, he did not manage to accomplish the mission within 33 days. For the second time, he was elevated to the post of Prime Minister in 1993 after the Sejm elections, and carried out the job until February 1995 when a government crisis forced him to resign. In 1995, Pawlak ran for Presidency but gained only 4.31%.
4. Marek Sawicki, Minister of Agriculture, and Jolanta Fedak, Minister of Labor, also represent PSL.
5. Other seats in the cabinet are distributed among PO's representatives: Elzbieta Bienkowska – Minister of Regional Development; Zbigniew Ćwiąkalski – Minister of Justice; Miroslaw Drzewiecki – Minister of Sports; Cezary Grabarczyk – Minister of Infrastructure; Aleksander Grad – Minister of Treasury; Katarzyna Hall – Minister of Education; Bogdan Klich – Minister of Defense; Eva Kopacz – Minister of Health; Barbara Kudrycka – Minister of Science and Higher Education; Maciej Nowicki – Minister of Environment; Jacek Rostowski – Minister of Finance; Radoslaw Sikorski – Minister of Foreign Affairs; Bogdan Zdrojewski – Minister of Culture; Zbigniew Derdziuk – Minister without portfolio.
Four persons from the above list represent special interest for the Russian audience both due to significance of their positions as well as remarkable features of their personalities.
Minister of Justice Zbigniew Ćwiąkalski
Zbigniew Ćwiąkalski is a Ph. D. (Law). Since his graduation from the Krakow University in 1971, he was engaged in scientific research at the Faculty of Law. In 1972-81, he was a member of the Polish United Workers' Party. Later, he joined the oppositionist Solidarnosc Movement. In 1992-93 he was employed as an advisor of Prime Minister Hanna Suchocka, and later until 1996 as an advisor of the Minister of Education.
In the government of Hanna Suchocka, Ćwiąkalski drafted the Law on the Crown Witness (which protects anonymity of the witness from a gang who had struck a deal with justice to gain clemency). In 2007, he signed a programmatic statement on the foundation of the Movement for Democracy, chaired by Aleksander Kwasniewski. During the tenure of Jaroslaw Kaczynski's government, Ćwiąkalski castigated then-Justice Minister Zbigniew Zebro; in particular, he published a legal analysis of the testimony of tycoon Ryszard Krauze, proving inconsistency of the evidence. (The details of this criminal case were covered in this author's article "The Games of the Twins"). The new minister of justice also co-owns the Krakow-based First Polish-American Bank.
Minister of Defense Bogdan Klich
Bogdan Klich, 47, Minister of Defense, also originates from Krakow. Though a postgraduate of the Krakow Medical Academy, he later took a MA degree in History of Arts at Krakow University and proceeded to Ph.D. at the same University's Faculty of History and Philosophy. During the martial law imposed by General Wojciech Jaruzelski, Klich was interned for "dissemination of anti-Socialist views". After the fall of the Communist government, he founded and chaired the Institute of Strategic Research. Klich served as an advisor of Poland's chief negotiator in the diplomacy on EU entry. In the 1999 government of Jerzy Buzek, he served as Deputy Minister of Defense, responsible for relations with NATO. As an MP of the Polish Sejm in 2001-2004, Klich was a vice-chairman of the Committee for Foreign Affairs and a member of the Defense Committee. Since 2003, he represented Poland in PACE and was consequently elected to the European Parliament, joining the faction of Christian Democrats. Mr. Klich was known as a convinced supporter of Poland's integration into the EU and NATO.
Minister of Finance Jacek Rostowski
Jacek Rostowski, born 1951 in Great Britain as Jan Vincent Rostowski, is a son of the personal secretary of Tomasz Arciszewski, chair of Poland's government-in-exile. Jacek is a postgraduate of the London University College and LSE's Faculty of Economy. His relationship with the native country was accomplished by his wife Wanda, daughter of an activist of the Warsaw Insurrection and an associate of the Solidarnosc Movement.
In 1989-91, Jacek Rostowski was an advisor of Leszek Balcerowicz, the strategist of Polish economic reforms. Until 1994, he was a member of the supervisory board of the Polish Development Bank. In 1995, he joined Kleinwort Benson's consulting branch that facilitated the Polish program of privatization. In the same period, he worked with the Center for Economic Performance, taught in LSE, and consulted Victor Chernomyrdin's government in Russia on issues of macroeconomic policy.
In 1997-2001, Jacek Rostowski chaired the Macroeconomic Policy Council of Poland's Ministry of Finance, pursuing acceleration of Poland's entry into the euro zone.
Minister of Foreign Affairs Radoslaw Sikorski
Radoslaw Sikorski's biography was already presented in our article "The Doom of the Fourth Republic". Sikorski's candidature aroused the most furious resistance from President Lech Kaczynski, who instigated a massive smearing campaign against the nominee.
Kaczynski tried to describe Sikorski an "enemy of the United States", despite his background of work with the New Atlantic Initiative in Washington. Mass media alleged Sikorski's connections with British intelligence, and blamed him for disclosing secret military information during his tenure of Defense Minister.
"Radoslaw Sikorski is an anti-American politician", echoed Jaroslaw Kaczynski in his comments on Sikorski's nomination as Minister of Foreign Affairs. "Regarding the fact that Poland is today in a zone which Russia considers as only temporarily forfeited, we should qualify this nomination as irresponsible".
The efforts of the Kaczynski twins to prevent approval of Sikorski's candidature for Minister of Foreign Affairs, even exceeding the Presidential duties, were actually based on personal antipathy to the nominee.
THE TWINS' FIVE GRUDGES AGAINST RADEK SIKORSKI
Grudge 1: Kenneth Hillas, ABM Defense, and Data Leakage
In October 2006, Warsaw was shaken with a diplomatic scandal. At that time, Polish media leaked out a classified report authored by Leszek Jesen, Secretary of Prime Minister's Office. The Secretary reported about his own conversation with Kenneth Hillas, first secretary of the US Embassy in Warsaw. The two officials discussed the negative attitude of then-Vice Premier Andrzej Lepper towards Poland's involvement in US-led military missions in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as towards deployment of US ABM facilities in Poland. According to the paper, Mr. Hillas made clear that Washington was irritated with Lepper's statement and that in case a deputy prime minister of Germany, France or Denmark behaved in this way he would immediately have to resign.
Leszek Jesen's report, addressed to the Prime Minister, mysteriously surfaced in mass media, followed with a handwritten impersonal remark of Defense Minister Sikorski, "Arrogant as usual".
When the US State Department officially expressed dissatisfaction with the fact of leakage, warning that such documents should not be published, Prime Minister Kaczynski declared that the statements of Ambassador Hillas are equally unacceptable, as they exceed the norms of relationship of two sovereign countries. In her turn, incumbent Foreign Minister Anna Fotyga desired explanations from US Ambassador, expressing protest against intervention into Poland's domestic policy. The investigation failed to identify the source of the leakage; still, Lech Kaczynski remains convinced that it was facilitated by Radek Sikorski.
Grudge 2: The Strategic Defense Review, and neo-Communists in the Ministry of Defense
Despite objections from President Kaczynski, Radek Sikorski continued his work over the Strategic Defense Review, started by his predecessor, Leftist Democrat Yerzy Szmaidzinski. The purpose of this document was to define the strategy of reforms of Poland's armed forces, suggesting reduction of troops and formation of a professional army. The relevant program was supervised by Deputy Minister Andrzej Karkoszka, also a Leftist Democrat and therefore a pariah at the President's Office. Sikorski also supported WSI Director Marek Dukaczewski, one more suspected sympathizer of Leftist Democrats.
Grudge 3: A visit to Donald Rumsfeld
In May 2006, Defense Minister Radoslaw Sikorski paid a visit to the United States. Though the trip was private, Sikorski was received by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and a number of influential US politicians. A jealous Kaczynski got furious, though Sikorski insisted in Washington that the United States increase military assistance to Poland. During his own subsequent visit to Washington, Lech Kaczynski had to wait for a long time before being invited to George W. Bush's office. Attributing this "personal humiliation" to Sikorski's intrigues, he accused the Minister of Defense of "a beggar's behavior".
Grudge 4: Macierewicz and the ZEN operation
Lech Kaczynski repeatedly expressed his dissatisfaction with Radek Sikorski's sympathy towards General Marek Dukaczewski. Though Sikorski officially discharged Dukaczewski and intended to appoint him to the position of the military attaché in China, Kaczynski's weasels in the Ministry of Defense reported that Sikorski regularly consulted the disgraced general, regarding him as a more competent specialist than Macierewicz.
Meanwhile, Macierewicz sneaked that Sikorski also consulted Aleksander Makowski, a former top official of Communist-time Interior's intelligence, though Mr. Makowski had been involved in the so-called ZEN Operation, described in Macierewicz's 1992 report. In private, Sikorski would argue that competent intelligence officers should be rather employed for tasks of national security than exposed to the public. In addition, Sikorski expressed skepticism over Macierewicz's efforts to create a new system of intelligence and counterintelligence from scratch.
Grudge 5: Iraq and Afghanistan
Having blamed Sikorski of displaying "beggar's behavior" in Washington, Lech Kaczynski subsequently inculpated him an opposite sin: namely, anti-Americanism. Radek Sikorski dared to express doubt that Poland's armed forces could sustain simultaneous involvement in two international missions – in Iraq and Afghanistan. Addressing US diplomats, he proposed that Poland prolong its mission in Afghanistan under condition of withdrawal from Iraq since 2007. Right at that time, Kaczynski was convincing Washington of Poland's readiness to continue its mission in Iraq.
This disloyalty, along with "flirt with ex-Communists", was interpreted by Kaczynski as evidence of Sikorski's backdoor game with Russia, though this version had nothing to do with reality. Sikorski's disaccord with the President emerged from his obvious intellectual superiority. An Oxford-trained specialist, Radek Sikorski was trying to pursue a pragmatic foreign and security policy. In his view, pragmatism was not a synonym of Russia-bashing.
RECOVERY FROM "DUCKLING PHOBIAS"
Radoslaw Sikorski believes that the main problems, facing Poland's foreign policy, include: 1) deployment of US ABM facilities in Poland; 2) relations with Germany; 3) relations with Russia; 4) the Nord Stream gas pipeline.
Sikorski, as well as his new political allies Donald Tusk and Wladyslaw Bartoszewski (Prime Minister's main foreign affairs councilor), is far from being a convinced opponent of ABM deployment in Poland. However, this political trio, contrary to their predecessors responsible for Polish foreign policy in previous government (Kaczynski brothers and Anna Fotyga), is highly educated and modern-thinking (despite Bartoszewski's gray hairs). The new trio is free from "duckling phobias", and prepared for a pragmatic discussion with Washington. This new approach suggests that the new Polish establishment is going to gain as much as possible from the United States in exchange for compliance with ABM deployment, or reject this plan in case the price is not acceptable. Addressing his NATO partners in public, Sikorski inquires, "If Turkey received $6 billion for use of its military bases by US troops, why should Poland service the allies for free?"
Still, the last word in the issue of ABM deployment belongs to Prime Minister Donald Tusk. He is presently in a complicated situation, as 60% of the population, according to public polls, is opposed to deployment of US ABM systems in their country. Though he promised to his people to envisage the issue to the people's benefit, his decision is likely to be based on the balance of geopolitical interests. In order to avoid deployment of ABM systems near its borders, Russia could make a generous gesture, related to the pipeline project.
DIALOGUE WITH GERMANY
For Donald Tusk, with his reputation of a Germanophile, this problem seems to be the easiest. However, he will have to spend much time to re-establish the diplomacy spoiled by his predecessors. It is noteworthy that the anti-German demagogy of the Kaczynski brothers relied upon the relevant sentiment in the population, which is historically suspicious towards "the
Swabians". It is also true that a few of the arguments, mounted on Germany, were related to real problems – in particular, the issue of restitution of cultural valuables, as well as the relations with Erika Steinbach's Bund der Vertriebenen (Association of the Expellees).
The idea that Germans and Russians tend to conspire behind the back of the Poles is too deeply embedded in Polish national thinking. This superstition was instigated in late 1980s after the Molotov-Ribbentrop agreement of 1940 was published along with secret protocols regarding partition of Poland. Not surprisingly, the Nord Stream pipeline agreements are labeled in Polish press as a "new Molotov-Ribbentrop protocol". Therefore, Poland's relations with Germany inevitably imply also Germany's relations with Russia. This fact suggests not only drawbacks but also advantages for Russia.
RELATIONS WITH RUSSIA
The Russian-Polish relations have been deteriorated for years from both sides of the border. At first, the post-Communist leadership of Poland deliberately displayed its anti-Moscow sentiment from fears of being suspected of being dependent from the neighbor. In its turn, Boris Yeltsin's Russia concentrated its foreign policy on direct diplomacy with Washington, London, and Bonn, neglecting the former Comecon allies. The latest phase of deterioration was accomplished by the efforts of the Kaczynski twins, who were not negotiable even for a diplomatic genius if he represented the "essentially evil" Russia.
The pressure of mutual superstitions has ruined the cultural exchange and impeded bilateral trade, which is by today restricted to deliveries of energy resources. The embargo for Polish meat products, as well as vegetarian goods, does not much affect the Russian market but is very sensitive for Polish farmers who have lost a significant portion of incomes. According to calculations of Polish economists, the daily damage of the embargo for Polish exports reaches around 1 million euros.
The political disgrace of the Kaczynskis opens new perspectives for Russian-Polish relationship, which is likely to replace the waning paranoid fears. Though Poland is still viewed as "America's Trojan horse" in Europe, why not try to tame this horse?
NOT ONLY NORD STREAM
Poland has been the most adamant opponent of the construction of the Russian-German undersea pipeline. But after the change of the Polish government, Russia has grounds to hope that new bilateral agreements resolve the debate for mutual benefit of the peoples.
The advantages from rapprochement with Poland are not restricted to meat trade and gas transit. Polish industry represents interest for Russian corporation; at the same time, it requires large-scale investments. Lately, a number of major Polish enterprises have being overtaken by Ukraine's Rinat Akhmetov and India's Lakshmi Mittal. Still, there is enough space for mutually favorable corporate partnership for the two sides, which may contribute to a new quality of relationship of Eastern and Western Slavs.
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