Polish leaders disappointed at not being asked to Russian anniversary

Kyiv Post ^ | Jun 28 2005

[lizol]

Polish leaders disappointed at not being asked to Russian anniversary

Jun 28 2005, 11:18

WARSAW, Poland (AP) - Polish officials expressed disappointment on Monday that Russia didn't invite any of the country's leaders to July celebrations marking the 750th anniversary of the founding of Kaliningrad.

It "is more than a mistake," Poland's President Aleksander Kwasniewski said in an interview on all-news channel TVN24. "We do not understand this."

Russian President Vladimir Putin has invited French President Jacques Chirac and German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder to take part in the anniversary celebrations in the Russian Baltic exclave of Kaliningrad, a once-German city that came under Soviet control after World War II.

The city is separated from the rest of Russia, wedged between Poland and Lithuania.

"If I were an adviser to the Russian government, I would have suggested they consider inviting primarily the neighbors, like Lithuania or Poland," said Polish Foreign Minister Adam Rotfeld.

"But today, Russia is concerned about its position in the world and it centers on global powers."

Tensions between Russia and Poland have deepened since Warsaw helped mediate an end to the election crisis last year in the ex-Soviet republic of Ukraine. In May, many Poles were angered by Putin's failure to mention Poland's role in defeating Nazi Germany during ceremonies marking the 60th anniversary of World War II.

[kharaku]

Me thinks this could have been a much more intentional slight than is indicated by the article. Putin's administration has no love of the former soviet countries joining up with EU and NATO, and I think he may have intended to send a signal about Russia's perception of their relevance.

[lizol]

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[lizol]

Of course, I have no doubts about it.

But you know - sc**w Putin and his fellows!

[kharaku]

I think Russia would be best suited with someone from Kasparov's crew winning the next election. The problem with former-soviet-former-kgb leaders is they still harbor the 'All pigs are equal but some pigs are more equal than others' way of looking at the former soviet nations.

[lizol]

Yep! I don't know if you speak Russian, but there is a Russian saying, which suits to your post very well: "Kuritsa ne ptitsa Polsha ne zagranytsa", which means: a chicken is not realy a bird, Poland is not really abroad.

[bummerdude]

Maybe this is why Poland wasn't invited to "Kaliningrad":

Mikhail Ivanovich Kalinin (Novermber 1875–June 3, 1946) was a Bolshevik revolutionary and Soviet politician.

During the Great Purge, many wrote letters to Kalinin with petitions to reconsider the fates of the convicts, and indeed, Kalinin's intervention often helped, thus giving him the reputation of "kind grandfather Kalinin" (recall that Stalin was "dear father" to all Soviet people then). However, at the same time, Kalinin routinely signed execution lists together with other members of the Politburo, such as the authorization of the Katyn massacre.

He retired in 1946 and died shortly afterward in Moscow. Kalinin was buried in the Kremlin Wall necropolis. The city of Tver bore the name Kalinin from 1931 to 1990 in his honor. The former German city of Königsberg (East Prussia), conquered in 1945 by the Red Army and incorporated into the Soviet Union, was renamed Kaliningrad in his honor.

[lizol]

Well, this is why Poland should not go there, if was invited. :-)))

BTW - have you heard about a big mess in Russia, after authorities of Warsaw decided to name one of Warsaw's roundabouts after Dzhohar Dudayev - the first president of Chechnya? Russians got just furious about the fact, that Poland honoured a man, who was a terrorist (in their opinion) and had Russian blood on his hands.

And at the same time they see no problem in keeping a name of a Russian city after a guy, who participated in slaughtering Polish POW's.

[kharaku]

To it's credit Russia has renamed a lot of the Soviet-renames. We no longer have to suffer Stalingrad, and Leningrad for instance. Makes reading guidebooks remarkably confusing though... street names are never right. They could stand to remove the praisings of Lenin from everything though...

[bummerdude]

Good for Poland. Maybe Poland should name a whole city after him until Russia gets rid of the Kaliningrad name :)

[lizol]

In such a case they would nuke us probably immidiately. :-))

[bummerdude]

It is sad to think that Russia wouldn't amount to squat if it wasn't for a couple of lefties, the Rosenbergs, who gave them the secret of the atom bomb.

[Lukasz]

You know that when Dudayev died, even the Russians didn't consider him as a terrorist. He became terrorist 10 years afher his death. :-)

[Jack Black]

Yes the Russians think and speak that way. Unfortunately for them their hollow, drunken country doesn't have much left in the way of power to push anybody around anymore.

As for the city in question it is not contiguous with Russia, so I would suspect that it will not be part of Russia for all that much longer. No doubt a certain sensetivity to the geopolitics of the situation inspired the oversights on the invite list.

for those not up on Baltic geography:

I don't know much about the ethnic makeup of the city. Is it more likely to join Poland, Lithuainia or go it alone? One things for sure when they decide to leave the Glorious Motherland behind the Ruskies are not going to have the stilted party goers agreement to driving tanks across two or three countries to put down the latest velvet revolution. Best to celebrate now! More Vodka!!

[Jack Black]

You have a really great home page !!

[lizol]

Thanks! Glad you like it :-)

[franksolich]

You know, that is such a geographic anomaly, wouldn't it just be easier and cheaper if Russia gave that enclave to Poland or Lithuania?

Surely it costs Russia more to hold, than to give away.

[lizol]

Of course Russia will never agree to give up that region. It's a one huge "land-carrier" for them.

Another problem is - whether Poland or Lithuania would like to have it - with all the problems it's going to bring in.

I think Russia should turn Kaliningrad region into some kind of Hong - Kong - a dependant territory, but with vast autonomy. But it's against Russian tradition and way of thinking about a state.

[Lukasz]

They are fools that they didn’t invited the Lithuanians. You know, that the Russians want to have a corridor through Lithuania to have easy access to the Kaliningrad region. Lithuanians reacted more emotionally than the Poles and I suppose that the Russians may now build their corridor through France and Germany :-)

[dfwgator]

Well Koningsberg was a part of Germany before, maybe they can become independent just call themselves "East Germany." At least they would have a decent women's swim team. ;)