Fear that Russia is rebuilding its authoritarian dominance in Central and Eastern Europe as it grows closer to Washington underscores a message today to NATO leaders from the head of Poland’s top opposition party, the twin brother of the late President Lech Kaczynski.
Jaroslaw Kaczynski, the president of Poland’s Law and Justice party, writes in a letter obtained by WND that Poles have observed in the past decade since 9/11 “a progressive process of growing authoritarian power in Russia and a number of measures aimed to rebuild Russia’s communist-era sphere of influence, not only in the former Soviet Union, but also outside of it.”
The letter was obtained through Harvey Kushner, a counter-terrorism and security expert who has served as a consultant to Kaczynski and other officials in Central Europe.
President Obama announced at the end of the first day of the two-day summit an agreement on a missile defense plan that would be “strong enough to cover all NATO European territory and populations, as well as the United States.”
In April, the U.S. lost perhaps Europe’s mostly Washington-friendly leadership when an jetliner carrying Lech Kaczynksi and 95 other high officials and dignitaries went down near the western Russian city of Smolensk. As WND reported, Jaroslaw Kacyzinki’s party sent two representatives to the U.S. this week asking for help to launch an international probe of the crash. Kushner is working with the representatives in an effort assisted by Jeffrey Epstein of the U.S.-based counter-terrorism group America’s Truth Forum.
Commenting on the agreement announced today, Kushner emphasized that Poland and the Czech Republic want a commitment for a missile shield on their own soil.
The Obama agreement, Kushner told WND, is “sketchy at best,” comparing it to the new START treaty signed in April, which, in his estimation, while reducing missiles, does not account for variances in the quality, condition and capacity of the weapons and the fact that the U.S. has many more targets to protect.
“Kaczynski feels that any deal with the Russians would put Poland and some of its Central European neighbors in a very awkward position,” Kushner said.
Russia has been opposed to any missile shield in Central and Europe, but NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said today he will ask Moscow to cooperate on the new project, which is expected to cost $273 million over 10 years.
Poland’s president, Bronislaw Komorowski, said in an interview Thursday with Poland’s Gazeta Wyborcza daily that his nation favors developing “constructive relations” with Russia that would be “positive for the security of both sides.” He cautioned, however, that NATO’s “relations with Russia should not be developed at the expense of the security interests of other countries in Eastern Europe.”
In his letter, Kaczynski, who was a candidate for president in Poland’s July election, lamented that the “placing of NATO defense infrastructure on the territories of new members has not taken place.”
The Polish party leader said Russia’s encroachment and a “visible change in the priorities of the United States’ security policy” away from Europe and toward the Far East “requires us to make inquiries into the Alliance’s actual security guarantees for Poland and other Central European countries that joined NATO.”
Kushner said the Czech Republic, Hungary, Belarus, Latvia, Georgia – which was invaded by Russia in August 2008 – and others in the region “feel strongly that the Russian federation is being allowed to reform itself almost as it was at the time of the Soviet Union,” he said. “There is tremendous concern about the Russian bear regaining control without any opposition from the U.S.”
The new missile shield agreement, Kushner said, “fits into the framework in which the Obama administration has been working with Russia,” leveraging the Russians against the Iranians in the Islamic regime’s quest to become a nuclear power and allowing Russia to have a greater role in Afghanistan by buying their helicopters and sharing satellite imagery.
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“Restoring the Republic,” by Rep. Devin Nunes