The press today has been reviewed by Aleksander Kropiwnicki.

The war in Georgia is waking the West up, claims Piotr Naimski, a Polish expert on energy security, in his interview with RZECZPOSPOLITA. Mr. Naimski used to be a member of two conservative cabinets. As he says, energy was the first reason of the Russian invasion of Georgia. Europe needs an independent corridor transmitting gas and oil from Asia. Those in the European Union who used to doubt it, now seem convinced and it was Moscow which has convinced them by its policy in Caucasus. Poland’s president Lech Kaczynski has always claimed that the key to the energy supplies via Georgia to Europe is admitting Tbilisi to NATO. Now we see that he’s right, says Piotr Naimski. 

Professor Andrzej Nowak, a Polish historian and specialist on Polish-Russian relations, is getting really active in the gutter press. ‘Europe must remember that Russia is the Empire of Evil’, he says in his interview with SUPER EXPRESS, a tabloid newspaper. What Russia, run by Putin and Medvedev, is now doing, cannot be accepted. Such a Russia has no chance for strategic co-operation with Europe, he says. 

Poland’s position on the war in Georgia should be cohesive and very firm, says Professor Nowak in his interview published the same day by another tabloid newspaper FAKT. Poland cannot agree for equalizing responsibility of the authorities of Georgia and Russia for the conflict. And that’s, unfortunately, what some European leaders are now claiming. Poland should certainly support independence of Georgia. This issue is vital for Europe. If Georgia becomes a satellite state, Russia will easily cut the last channel of gas&oil supplies which it cannot control, warns Professor Nowak. 

The British are weeping when saying farewell to the so-called Polish plumber, even though he is still around writes GAZETA WYBORCZA. According to the Home Office and such newspapers as ‘The Observer’, the Poles are keen to come back home because of the slowing down of the British economy. Allegedly, Poland’s labor market is now getting more attractive than the British one. ‘We don’t know who’s passing on such information’, answer Polish immigrants in the UK. ‘Here is now our home, we earn good money and have no intention to move anywhere. The British pound is getting weaker, indeed, but we don’t care too much’, they say. The British economy has really been slowing down but flights and buses from Poland to the UK are still overbooked, writes GAZETA WYBORCZA.  

Poles are likely to blame politicians for everything, including the bad results in international football games or Poland’s poor performance in Beijing. They are wrong, writes a columnist of the POLSKA daily. In this country, sport has been strictly separated from politics. The state authorities have tried to sort this mess out many times, and have never succeeded. Various sports associations defend their independence fiercely and they are supported by the international sporting organizations. The state is helpless, writes the columnist.