Radek Sikorski, foreign minister of Poland, urges the West to look east

Sikorski wrote: "We (Poland) survived a terrible test of our democracy: following the tragic death of President Lech Kaczynski in April 2010,"

Can you imagine a plane with the British Queen and hudred or so MP's onboard or the US President with a 100 Congressmen crushing somewhere in Russia and then handing all investigation to Russia? It is simply unthinkable. April 2010 crash shows that Poland is a crap country (or rather state), an utter laughing stock, and Sikorski is a megalomaniac.

Kraus,

If I remember the investigation was open. And the result has been accepted by both countries. There is a black box in the plane.

The truth is that the Russian Federation and both NATO and the E.U. are integrating, something logical as Europe is the main Market for Russia and Russia is the main energy supplier for Europe.

In fact, 40% of the European Peninsula is part of Russia...

@enriquecost: thanks. You precisely proved my point, i.e. "And the result has been accepted by both countries." Poland, as a state, became a complete joke.

Thank you, Radek, but you missed a point with the Ukrainians.
The thing is not whether they "can swollow hard", but rather IMF or some other international financial institution. The terms of trade EU forces on Ukraine will lead to huge deepening of the country balance of trade deficite in the short to medium term perspective. The government will have to either borrow havily on international markets, which is hardly an option in the present day conditions, or devalue the currency, which IMF strictly forbids, or borrow from international donors. Will Poland "to be reconed with" have enough power to pursuade the West to extend to Ukraine at lease portion of help destined for Greece, Ireland and other European countries? I would very much appreciate Mr.Sikorski answering this question in his next blog in the Economist, although I do not hold my breath.

R_Kraus: Nobody is denying that the Polish state had to treat the Smolensk tragedy as an opportunity to learn new practical things, such as the best way to transport VIPs and how to handle transnational investigations. I would urge you to separate Lech Kaczynski, elected in 2005 as a conservative nationalist under very different circumstances, from the more recently elected PO government which, as this magazine's other articles have pointed out, has transformed Poland's image into that of a reliable partner and productive neighbor. I personally think that L. Kaczynski was incompetent on many levels, as is his psychotic brother. But don't simply dismiss the incredible progress Poland has made in the past 3 years because some gasping remnants of a bygone era in Polish politics (L. Kaczynski wouldn't have survived his re-election bid) couldn't organize a foreign trip properly.

What's a perfect reflection of Polish attitude to everything is fact that even here two guys - probably two Poles (R_Kraus & rp45...) - are quarreling over politics ;-)

But seriously: it's great that Polish MFA made it to publish serious article on serious issues in serious weekly. It's a good omen for Polish presidency in the EU, because it means we are able to stimulate European discussion and to take part in it (actively!).

Dispute over people's estimation of the internal situation in politics should be suspended and we need to roll our sleeves up - there is a lot to do in Q3-Q4 of 2011.

@In 2011 the world will finally wake up and realise that Poland has become a country to reckon with in Europe.@
I like Poland but seems that they are overconfident. As before Poland will be no better than a buffer state between old Europe and crazy Russians.