In an opinion piece, Stanisław Żaryn said that Russian security services have played "a key role” in this operation, “as evidenced by the choice of tools and the use of influence” tactics in Russia and beyond.
Politics of history
Żaryn, who serves as the director of the National Security Department at the Polish Prime Minister’s Office in Warsaw, argues in his piece that history is an important instrument employed by the Kremlin in its politics.
“It serves to legitimise the regime by referring to past events, characters and processes while explaining current actions,” Żaryn said in his opinion piece, which was posted by Poland’s Rzeczpospolita newspaper on its website on Thursday.
But history “also serves foreign policy purposes,” according to Żaryn.
“One could even say that historical archives, alongside oil and gas, have become the main non-military tool in Russia's hybrid warfare,” he said.
'Anti-Western narrative'
Żaryn, who also serves as spokesman for Poland’s security services chief, asserts in his piece that the latest campaign launched by Putin against Poland is part of the Russian leader’s “anti-Western narrative” and comes at a time when Russia faces “growing internal problems, mainly economic ones.”
According to Żaryn, the Russian leader is looking for a way to stop his approval ratings from sinking and consolidate the public around him.
But another reason, a more important one, for Putin’s attack on Poland over history is “the current policy and goals of the Kremlin,” Żaryn said.
In a situation where various other tools being used against Poland are not producing the expected results, it appears that “the only method that remains is to falsify history,” he argues.
“Only in this way can Moscow expect to pit Warsaw against its Western allies, especially the United States,” Żaryn said.
He added: “And so, using history tools, Russian propaganda is trying to convince the international community that Poland poses a threat to good neighbourly relations in Central and Eastern Europe and on the Moscow-West line.”
Attempts to reduce Poland's credibility in the European Union and NATO, as well as in the eyes of the country’s neighbours, are intended to make it difficult for Warsaw to “pursue an active policy” vis-à-vis Moscow, Żaryn argues.
Why Putin is targeting Poland
Putin has targeted Poland chiefly because today the Kremlin sees Warsaw as "the main obstacle" to achieving its strategic goals in Europe, according to Żaryn.
The history policy of Poland’s conservative government “has effectively countered Russian lies about history and, above all, struck at the very foundation of the Putin regime,” with its ample ideological references to Stalinist traditions, Żaryn observed.
A narrative in which the Soviet Union is viewed as an ally of Hitler rather than a conqueror of Nazi Germany "undermines Russia's superpower ambitions," according to Żaryn.
Second, he says, Poland has become the main architect of efforts to build a political and economic bloc of countries between Russia and the West, something that Moscow perceives as “the biggest threat to its neo-imperial strategy.”
A third reason for the latest “Russian aggression against Poland” is energy security, Żaryn said.
He elaborated that Poland is “effectively reducing its dependence on Russian hydrocarbons” and importing less oil from that country.
The government in Warsaw has also announced it will not extend its long-term contract for Russian natural gas. Instead, Poland is stepping up its LNG imports from markets including the United States, and building a gas pipeline to access deposits in Norway.
In this way, Poland could become a "gas hub for the whole of Central Europe," enabling its neighbours to reduce their energy dependence on Russia as well, Żaryn points out.
Finally, he says, the fourth, and most important reason, for Putin’s "special operation" against Poland is that Warsaw is “forging an ever closer political and military alliance” with Washington.
This alliance not only strengthens Poland's security, but also leads to an increased presence of American and NATO troops across the entire eastern flank of the Atlantic Alliance, Żaryn said.
“And this guarantees stability not only in our part of Europe, but also worldwide,” he concluded.
Stanisław Żaryn. Picture: Polish Radio
Russia’s Putin last month suggested that Poland was partly responsible for the outbreak of World War II, and claimed that the Soviet Union helped “save lives” after it invaded Poland in 1939 following the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact between the USSR and Nazi Germany.
The comments triggered anger in Warsaw. Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said at the time that Putin “has lied about Poland on numerous occasions, and he has always done it deliberately.”
Polish Deputy Foreign Minister Szymon Szynkowski vel Sęk last month said Putin was pursuing a "dangerous narrative campaign" against Poland.
Polish President Andrzej Duda has accused Putin of “post-Stalinist revisionism” and of trying to shift the blame for the outbreak of World War II onto Poland.
The Polish prime minister said in an opinion piece published this week that Europe "must forcefully oppose the falsification of 20th century history."
He also said that “Russian historical propaganda regarding World War II is an unworthy lie and a deceitful attempt to blame others for the Soviet Union’s actions."
(gs)
Source: rp.pl