{"id":1121,"date":"2023-05-17T22:32:12","date_gmt":"2023-05-17T12:32:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pbw.id.au\/blog\/?p=1121"},"modified":"2023-08-20T15:02:58","modified_gmt":"2023-08-20T05:02:58","slug":"no-such-thing-as-russia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pbw.id.au\/blog\/2023\/05\/no-such-thing-as-russia\/","title":{"rendered":"No such thing as Russia\u2026"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\n

First published at New Catallaxy blog on 25 February, 2023<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

The backroom conversations and classified files of Foreign Ministries and Departments of State must be a wonderland of speculations and conditionals, of grand schemes and short-term crises. But, judging by the utterances of two former Ministers of Foreign Affairs, Poland\u2019s Ministry is up there with the best of them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Take Radoslaw (Radek) Sikorski, Minister from 2007 to 2014. Before that he was Minister of Defence, and for a year afterwards, Speaker of Parliament. According to the Center for Strategic & International Studies<\/a>,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

[H]e negotiated and signed the Poland-Russia regional visa-free regime, Poland-U.S. missile defense agreement, and\u2014together with foreign ministers of Germany and France\u2014the accord between the pro-EU opposition and Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych in 2013.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Unfortunately, the latter accord was rendered meaningless by the Maidan coup of 2014. Before this small hiccup, Foreign Policy<\/em> had ranked him in its top 100 \u201cglobal thinkers\u201d for \u201ctelling the truth even when it\u2019s not diplomatic.\u201d High praise indeed, and Mr Sikorski continues to live up to it. When the Nord Stream pipelines were sabotaged, and in disregard of the official narrative that \u201cthe Russians did it,\u201d Mr Sikorski told the inconvenient truth by tweeting a photo of the gas bubbling up in the Baltic, with the caption, \u201cThank you, USA.\u201d Only a week ago, Sikorski was asked during a radio interview, whether he thought that \u201c the government of PiS [Poland\u2019s ruling \u2018Law and Justice\u2019 party] at some point thought about partition\u201d of Ukraine. He responded, \u201cI think there was a moment of hesitation in the first ten days of the war, when we all did not know how it would go, and perhaps Ukraine would collapse.\u201d It was but a moment though, which was how long it took for the Polish Prime Minister to condemn his comments as \u201cno different from Russian propaganda.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The attachment of the Poles to \u201cnative Polish lands\u201d is on display in the railway stations with recruiting posters for Leopard tank crews which mention \u201cPolish armour in Ukraine,\u201d unless this poster has been mistranslated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Of more immediate interest to us, especially given the current constitutional debate, are the comments of another former Polish Minster of Foreign Affairs, Anna Fotyga. She is a member of the European Conservatives and Reformists Group in the European Parliament. It was founded in 2009 under the principles of the Prague Declaration<\/a>, and declares itself to be a centre-right grouping. The principles make interesting and contradictory reading. Many of the principles will be applauded by readers here who consider themselves conservative or centre-right. But the Declaration is sown with mines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 (1) Free enterprise, free and fair trade and competition, minimal regulation, lower taxation, and small government as the ultimate catalysts for individual freedom and personal and national prosperity.
\u2022 (2) Freedom of the individual, more personal responsibility and greater democratic accountability.
\u2022 (3) Sustainable, clean energy supply with an emphasis on energy security.
\u2022 (4) The importance of the family as the bedrock of society.
\u2022 (5) The sovereign integrity of the nation state, opposition to EU federalism and a renewed respect for true subsidiarity.
\u2022 (6) The overriding value of the transatlantic security relationship in a revitalised NATO, and support for young democracies across Europe.
\u2022 (7) Effectively controlled immigration and an end to abuse of asylum procedures.
\u2022 (8) Efficient and modern public services and sensitivity to the needs of both rural and urban communities.
\u2022 (9) An end to waste and excessive bureaucracy and a commitment to greater transparency and probity in the EU institutions and use of EU funds.
\u2022 (10) Respect and equitable treatment for all EU countries, new and old, large and small.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let us turn our eyes modestly from principle (3). It could mean anything, including a reliance on nuclear power, or nothing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Subsidiarity<\/em> (5) is the principle that decisions affecting the body politic must be capable of being taken at the lowest possible level in any hierarchy of government, and must in fact be taken at that level. It is the obverse of globalism. Subsidiarity<\/em> in this document seems to refer primarily to the sovereign integrity of the nation state<\/em>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The equitable treatment<\/em> of (10) extends to countries new and old<\/em>. What are these new countries? They would certainly include the young democracies<\/em> of (6). The youngest are the ones that haven\u2019t been created yet. Such countries are certainly on Anna Fotyga\u2019s horizon. It is the possibility of such countries coming into being that focusses conservative and reformist minds on the \u201coverriding<\/em> value\u201d of a \u201crevitalised NATO.\u201d These notions of nations are bundled up in (6).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What concrete policies might precipitate from this complex mix of requirements, one might wonder? Anna Fotyga illustrated<\/a> one such policy in an address late last month, which is worth quoting from at length.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

Putin and his gang of war criminals are not the cause, but the consequence of the problem, the root of which is the authoritarian and imperial essence of Moscow\u2026 [T]oday we find ourselves not in the 16th century of Ivan the Terrible or the 18th of Catherine II, but in the 21st century of international law, common organisations and shared values. The European Parliament and many other parliaments\u2026have labelled the Russian Federation a terrorist state\u2026 This terrorist organisation, even if it is seen by many as an empire, should be dismantled\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[T]he international community\u2026must\u2026[support] re-federalisation of the Russian state\u2026and the respect for the rights and desires of its nations. The victims of Russian imperialism should be able to rebuild their own statehoods, exercise their right to celebrate their heritage, and determine their own future\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are no such things as Russian gas, oil, aluminium, coal, uranium, diamonds, grain, forests, gold, etc. All such resources are Tatar, Bashkir, Siberian, Karelian, Oirat, Circassian, Buryat, Sakha, Ural, Kuban, Nogai, etc.  For most of the inhabitants of the regions \u2014 be they ethnic Russians or indigenous people \u2014 Moscow represents only war, repression, exploitation and hopelessness\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[W]e should discuss the prospects for the creation of free and independent states in the post-Russian space\u2026The international community has the obligation to support the rights of indigenous nations\u2026The same rights must belong to Khakas, Tuvans, Sakha or Evenks\u2026 [E]thnic Russians, while being the biggest nation of the Russian Federation, are just one of many\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The rupture of the Russian Federation will bring unquestionable benefits in the security, including energy security, and in the economy of Europe and Central Asia\u2026 [N]ew pro-Western states can emerge from within the Russian Federation\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[W]e are glad to host numerous experts, historians, journalists, politicians from both sides of Atlantic, and leaders and representatives of more than 20 nations of the Russian Federation, who will gather in Brussels in the European Parliament to discuss prospects for the decolonisation and deimperialisation of the Russian Federation.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Quite apart from the extreme Russia-hatred of Euroimperialists, generously projected onto \u201cethnic Russians\u201d, the ostensible justification of this passion for destruction should be familiar to Australians; and not just Australians. It is the argument of supra-national empire against the nation-state, whether it be Australia, Canada, New Zealand or the U.K., because only the nation-state can offer effective resistance to the Borg. The tools of choice for dismembering the nation-state are the nation or nations within, with techniques being developed and refined over a number of decades now. Any nation created by colonisation or conquest is likely to be vulnerable to this approach. For example, Kim Beazley just last year in an address<\/a> to the Ramsay Centre said,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

So in those two acts [the First Fleet and the settlement at Albany] we supplanted with our colonies then and ultimately our nation 250 nations that at that point of time inhabited Australia.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile, Poland looks to reinstate the full nation-state<\/em> of the nation<\/em> of Poland, so that the \u201cbenefits in the security, including energy security, and in the economy\u201d will flow to all Poles when first Ukraine and then Russia are dismembered, by whatever means necessary. Europeans have long memories, but so do Russians (and so do Chinese.) Such memories motivated the best of those who originally sought to transcend long and bitter rivalries in an allegiance to a supra-national Europe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And here we are, with the power of the EU executive held by a tiny clique; with Norway and Poland feeding on the energy-starved carcass of the once-mighty German industrial colossus; with the Poles marking out their territory on the other side of the borders; with the United States, through NATO, determining the security and hence the foreign policy of Europe; with the European centrifuge spinning up; and with only the external enemy and a proxy war holding the show together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wonder what Karol Wojtyla would make of it all?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

First published at New Catallaxy blog on 25 February, 2023 The backroom conversations and classified files of Foreign Ministries and Departments of State must be a wonderland of speculations and conditionals, of grand schemes and short-term crises. But, judging by the utterances of two former Ministers of Foreign Affairs, Poland\u2019s Ministry is up there with … Continue reading “No such thing as Russia\u2026”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[60,61,63,62],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1121","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-geopolitics","category-new-catallaxy","category-propaganda","category-smo"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8SCfl-i5","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1040,"url":"https:\/\/pbw.id.au\/blog\/2021\/07\/breaking-news-stairs-sue-dan-andrews-for-defamation\/","url_meta":{"origin":1121,"position":0},"title":"Breaking News: Stairs sue Dan Andrews for defamation","author":"admin","date":"Thu 8th Jul '21","format":false,"excerpt":"Published at Catallaxy Files on 10\/06\/2021 A set of stairs today filed a defamation suit against Victorian Premier Dan Andrews, lawyers representing the as-yet unnamed stairs announced today. \u201cDan Andrews called our client \u2018slippery\u2019,\u201d a spokes-entity for the stairs\u2019 lawyers said. \u201c\u2018Slippery\u2019 is an entity slur that stairs take very\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Catallaxy Files"","block_context":{"text":"Catallaxy Files","link":"https:\/\/pbw.id.au\/blog\/category\/publications\/catallaxy-files\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1005,"url":"https:\/\/pbw.id.au\/blog\/2021\/04\/the-urgent-need-for-quotas\/","url_meta":{"origin":1121,"position":1},"title":"The Urgent Need For Quotas","author":"admin","date":"Wed 7th Apr '21","format":false,"excerpt":"Published at Catallaxy Files on 30\/03\/2021 I was always opposed to the idea of quotas for women in Parliament. 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