Poland’s President Lech Kaczynski and his Lithuanian counterpart Valdas Adamkus have appealed for an urgent granting a NATO Membership Action Plan to Georgia and Ukraine. The two firm supporters of Georgia slammed Russia for planned destruction of the economy of that former Soviet republic and of ethnic cleansing.

Krystyna Kolosowka reports.

“Observing the uncontrolled violence and the use of force in Georgia, we see the granting of a NATO MAP as the only means to stabilize the region and bring security to ordinary people”, say the presidents of Poland and Lithuania in an appeal issued on the eve of crisis talks of NATO foreign ministers in Brussels. They point out that “Russian actions in the sovereign country of Georgia have gone far beyond any reasonable steps to ensure the safety of civilians and peacekeepers  and have escalated into open looting, the targeted destruction of the Georgian economy, landscape and nature, and killings which have the obvious signs of ethnic cleansing in the territories controlled by Russian troops.”

A senior official from the Polish President’s Office Michal Kaminski has said that recent developments in Georgia have shown that Russia is determined to pursue a tough imperial policy. Kaminski told Polish Radio that the Kremlin demonstrated clearly that it does not fear a reaction from the West. In this context the Monday initiative of the Presidents of Poland and Lithuania, calling for faster integration of Georgia and Ukraine into NATO is all the more important:

‘President Adamkus and President Kaczynski believe that the process of opening the door to NATO for Ukraine and Georgia should be accelerated, if  only to weaken Russian pressure on the two countries. It is worth noting that while Russian direct military intervention happened only in Georgia, a political intervention or pressure on Ukraine is very strong.’

Minister Kaminski believes that Russian military intervention in Georgia would not have taken place, if NATO decided at its summit earlier this year to offer MAP to Georgia and Ukraine. Robert Strybel, a Warsaw-based correspondent of American media, shares this view:

‘Probably, what happened in April in Bucharest where old Europe was foot-dragging, it didn’t want to provide such a plan, whereas Poland, the US and the newcomers were in favor of it, that position – I think – emboldened Russia to flex its muscles and start reigning in recalcitrant republics such as Georgia.’

On Tuesday the world was still  waiting for the Russian troops to withdraw from Georgia but no proof was forthcoming – Polish Radio reporters in the Caucasus said. Georgian deputy interior minister Eka Zguladze blamed Moscow for not complying with the ceasefire agreement.

‘We don’t see any significant movements of Russian regular army to north, meaning to Russia. However, we see a lot of maneuvers to south, meaning to the mainland of Georgia. Yes, we demand full withdrawal of Russian regular army from the territory of Georgia, including the conflict zone.’

Matthew Day, a British political analyst, points out that the latest developments in the Caucasus prove that Poland’s warnings about Russia’s plans to rebuild its imperial position and reign in its former republics were right:

‘Poland in particular, and other states neighboring Russia, have in the past felt that the rest of the world, the rest of Europe, don’t take their concerns seriously. For a long time they have been harping on about that, look – Russia is a big country, it’s flexing its muscle, it’s about time we began to show a coherent policy, an organized policy towards it. And I think the events in Georgia of the past couple of weeks have demonstrated that, may be, Poland and its peers were right and other countries have to follow suit.’

Poland joined NATO in 1999 while Lithuania became its member in 2004.