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70 Beyond Ukraine. EU and Russia in Search of a New Relation (with Russian television being in the ‘front line’) Putin’s Russia made the annexation – in March 2014 – of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol, thereby consolidating its geostrategic position on the Black Sea. It should be borne in mind that the ultimate goal of Putin’s policy is a radical change in the current territorial system of Central and Eastern Europe, with the intention of regaining direct or indirect influence over some former Soviet territories. Putin himself has repeatedly said that the dissolution of the USSR (by which he also means the fall of Russian domination) was “the largest geopolitical catastrophe” of the XX century. Putin’s wars, from Georgia to Ukraine, have a territorial and geopolitical character. The Russian annexation of Crimea and de facto domination over the Donbas region means – in particular regarding Crimea – a serious violation of international law and a dangerous precedent for possible territorial changes in Europe. Nevertheless it is important to point out that some Eastern and Central European countries show attitudes that differ from that of Warsaw. Hungary’s Prime Minister, Viktor Orban, has recently met Vladimir Putin signing an important energy agreement. The Czech Republic’s President, Miloš Zeman, in his interview with a Russian radio station said that his dream is to see Russia as a member of the European Union. Nevertheless, these positions do not derive from a pro-Russian policy, but are motivated by the political, economic and military opportunities that such cooperation can provide. No room for historical reconciliation? The current Russian ‘historical narrative’ on Polish-Russian relations and the assessment of Polish politics is clearly negative. However, it should be noted that in the first decade of the twentyfirst century attempts to understand the complexity of these relationships were made – a noble effort, considering it took place under the most difficult circumstances in the entire history of Polish-Russian relations throughout the twentieth century. As a
Russia, Poland and the “New Europe”: Inevitable Clash? 71 result of research conducted both by Polish and Russian historians, a work (of nearly 900 pages) was published in 2010, edited through Adam D. Rotfeld and Anatoly W. Torkunov’s joint effort and titled White stains - black stains. Difficult issues in Polish- Russian relations, 1918-2008 (Polish Institute of International Affairs, Warsaw, 2010) 1 . Only five years ago, in 2010, it seemed that there was a possibility of agreement between Poland and Russia even on the most sensitive issues, symbolized for decades by the Soviet denial, maintained also in the new Russia, of one of the cruellest crimes of Stalinism – the massacre of prisoners of war, Polish officers, which took place in 1940 in Katyń. But despite the fact that Russian leaders have accepted the true course of events of the 1940s – which was in itself an important breakthrough – a shadow was cast over the celebrations at Katyń in 2010 by the plane crash over Smolensk, in which the then Polish president, Lech Kaczyński, and 95 representatives of the Polish political elite perished. And so at the beginning of the second decade of the XXI century, in the specific context of the Ukrainian crisis initiated by the pro-European “Maidan Revolution” in 2013, Russia officially and in a decisive manner denied any attempts to open – in terms of historical policy – to Polish postulates, returning to the traditional interpretation of Polish-Russian relations that marked Soviet times. Jan Rydel points to Polish attempts to maintain dialog with regard to a jointly acknowledged historical policy, stressing that the so-called reset in Polish-Russian relations was also to include historical policy. The Polish scholar recalls that in 2009 a successful Polish-Russian-German conference on the Ribbentrop- Molotov pact was held. During the same year Vladimir Putin was the guest of honour at the Polish celebrations of the 70 th anniversary of outbreak of World War II, and in 2011 the Polish Parliament decided to create a Center for Polish-Russian Dialog and Understanding. Finally – trying to repeat the formula of 1 A.D. Rotfeld, A.W. Torkunow (eds.), Białe plamy – czarne plamy. Sprawy trudne w polsko-rosyjskich stosunkach 1918-2008, Warszawa, Polski Instytut Spraw Międzynarodowych, 2010.
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