“It’s a European problem” ” “

“The Russian Federation is the first Country that blatantly violated all treaties and international agreements ratified since 1945 with the annexation of Crimea, determining a change in European borders. This constitutes a threat not only for Ukraine but also for the rest of the world”. The escalating situation in Eastern Europe was analysed by Eugeniusz Smolar Polish expert in international relations, interviewed for SIR Europe by Anna Kowalewska. Journalist, activist of the opposition in Poland under the communist regime, director of the Polish news desk of BBC World Service, Smolar for many years chaired the Institute for International Relations in Warsaw, advisor for the Minister of Foreign Affairs. Warsaw is concerned over increasing numbers of victims, most of whom civilians, in the clashes in Ukraine. What is your opinion of the situation with your next-door neighbours? “Poland, which borders on Ukraine and on the Russian Federation, considers what has happened as a direct threat to its security, to the security of other Countries in the region and to Europe as a whole. Poland is especially committed as ambassador of Ukraine to the EU, but we’re doing the same for other countries in our region. As we have shown with our presence in the European Union, the ‘common home’ prompts economic, cultural development, and steps up Member States’ security. Germany once was determined in its commitment for adhesion of Poland to the EU and NATO, as it wished to have a friendly, wealthy Country as a neighbour, a neighbour that would respect the rules of democracy and of the free market. It acted this way also to step up its own security. The same criteria characterises Poland’s approach to Ukraine, Belarus, and to other Countries in the region today. We also want stable, politically predictable neighbouring Countries. This hope is not against Russia”. Is the Ukrainian question a matter of European security? “It is for a matter of principle. Ukraine is an independent, sovereign Country, recognized by all international treaties, by the UN and by the 1995 Helsinki Treaty signed by Moscow, that recognizes all the borders in Europe and politically binds the signatories not to undertake actions of any kind, whether directly or indirectly, especially with the use of armed forces, aimed at changing those borders. In compliance with all treaties and agreements ratified also by the Russian Federation, every Country is entitled to choose its path of development. Nobody can interfere in another Country’s choices”. You claim that every Country has the right to choose its own future. But there has been a referendum in Crimea, followed by a referendum in the Donetsk region. The outcomes support Moscow’s claim that the populations of those areas want independence from Kiev…. “The referendums in Crimea and in the Donetsk region took place under the threat of weapons: nobody could recognise them as democratic and valid”. For the time being, EU economic sanctions against Russia have not led to an improvement of the situation. Indeed, they weigh on the respective economies, of Russia and EU alike. Shouldn’t a different policy be adopted? “Sanctions are just an element of politics, they should not be considered as the only means. They have already triggered effects that will be even more incisive in the future. Russian leaders are well aware of this, given the economic situation of Russia, of the ruble, the ever scantier possibilities of financing further development and given the increasingly fragile social stability of the Russian Federation. However, current European unity has an incomparably greater value. Russian diplomacy, operating according to patterns which date back to the times of the Soviet Union, seeks to undermine that unity. The facts we know of today, the requests put forward by the leaders of the Russian Federation, represent attempts to shatter European unity (in conformity with Soviet tradition) through the identification of certain capitals open to cooperate also in violation of the founding principles of international coexistence. The attempt to cause the United States’ distancing from Europe’s positions, thereby interrupting transatlantic cooperation, is equally serious. These goals, openly conveyed by the leader of the Russian Federation, cannot be supported”.