Russia is bent on reestablishing its empire on post-Soviet territory, writes Newsweek.
Weekly press reviewed by Krystyna Kolosowska
Newsweek, which appeared before the extraordinary EU summit on the crisis in the Caucasus, says the Russians have shown they are determined to rebuild their empire on post-Soviet territory. They revealed also the methods they intend to use. Menacing words, sending spies, embargo on pork imports or turning off the oil tap are a thing of the past. In August 2008, Moscow returned to the diplomacy of tanks and cannons, which it last used in Afghanistan in 1979. The West is acting with a delay, while Moscow has been realising point by point a plan approved long ago by the Kremlin.
The weekly also talks to Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, who declares that his government will prevent a situation in which Poland will have the worst relations with Russia of all the European Union countries and will be isolated in its radicalism. This would be a dramatic mistake, the premier says.
Wprost writes that Poland should not fear a trade war with Russia because Russia has been waging such a war against it for many years now. Almost all Polish entrepreneurs doing business in the East feel that a new trade war with Russia is coming. It will not change much in the balance accounts of the Polish economy: Polish businessmen had ceased to believe in the “big Russian market” a long time ago. In the Polish-Russian skirmishes so far they registered more profits than losses. But while Poland’s economy would not feel too much Russian repressions against Polish firms operating in Russia, it might be vulnerable when it comes to supplies of Russian raw materials. Such a threat may materialise by the end of 2009, when a contract between Poland’s fuels giant PGNiG and a Russian gas supplier expires, says Wprost.
Gazeta Polska quotes Russian President Medvedev, who said recently “We are not afraid of anything, including the prospect of a new Cold War”. The weekly comments that after a regional, military war in the Caucasus, Moscow is now waging a global, diplomatic and long term war against the West and international organizations. Discussing various measures that the West could use to punish Moscow for its aggression, Gazeta Polska says the most painful would be intense engagement of the West in the post-Soviet space, an attempt to finally anchor such countries as Georgia, Ukraine, Moldova and even Belarus in the western world of democratic values and free market.
Newsweek appeared this past week with a special supplement focusing on Polish-British relations. Since EU entry in 2004, some one and a half million Poles migrated to the UK. According to a Polish community leader Wiktor Moszczynski they changed the British province first of all. The arrival of thousands of new inhabitants to small cities brought a dramatic change. Britons were shocked by the number of the newcomers and their sometimes peculiar habits, not always in line with British social norms. Many emotions were sparked off by the fact that Poles climbed up the social ladder very fast.
Newsweek says, however, that a growing number of Poles are returning home. According to some estimates, about 10 percent of over 1 million Poles who migrated to the UK have decided to come back home. Alas, returns are sometimes painful, as they have to adapt again to life in Poland, contacts with old friends have to be rebuilt, and generally, they do not feel here completely at home.
Polityka on its part, says all talk of a big wave of Poles returning home from Britain or Ireland is not based on facts. It is rather wishful thinking. Over 70 percent of Polish workers on the Isles don’t intend to come back. And even if it is true that many Poles leave the UK, many are simply –repacking and setting off in search of better prospects in other countries. Young migrant workers are extremely mobile. As many as 75 percent of men and 64 percent of women used to travel abroad in search of jobs before they went to the UK.
Still on the labor market. Solidarnosc says that Poland has one of the lowest employment rates among people over fifty. This is a result of a policy pursued by successive governments since this country switched to market economy in the early 1990s, which aimed at pushing out older people to make room for young workers. More than 70 percent of people who are fifty and more are unemployed, receive disability or old-age pensions. And while the number of the jobless is declining, this does not apply to this group of people. Solidarnosc is sounding an alarm that employers are getting rid of workers with great experience, which they could pass on to young employees.
Przekroj writes that the new road traffic code in Poland envisages fines of up to 4,000 zlotys, or about 1,700 US dollars, for speeding. The new rules are sure to cause a storm of protests but perhaps they will eliminate speeding demons and habitual law breakers from Polish roads. Przekroj points out that an average of about fifty people die in road accidents every weekend in Poland. That’s a bus full of passengers. The annual death toll on the roads is 5,500– that’s as if a small town disappeared from the Poland’s map. Sixty thousand are injured every year. Most road accidents are attributed to speeding. Last year it was the cause of over 30 percent of crashes and from year to year this figure is rising. Sadly, Poland is last but one on the EU list of countries with the most dangerous roads, Przekroj reports.