pondělí 14. dubna 2008

Fear or not fear of German-Russia friendship?

The suspicion is already not so strong like it has been during times when in Poland was government headed by Jaroslaw Kaczyński. But suspicion is still present: Germany is Troyan horse of strengthened Russia in Europe. The question is not military force, but business, economical power.
Last time when doubts where spotted easily, was during NATO summit in Bucarest two weeks ago. Proamerican newcomers to alliance from Central Europe hardly accepted that chancellor Angela Merkel de facto blocked enlargement of alliance eastwards.
The most suspicious are Poles, who have proeuropean open governement for last couple of months, but anyhow they has been very carefuly watching if anybody – by chance – is not demanding property or soil back from part of country which belongs to Poland after The Second World War.
Antipathy towards Germans is widely spread in Poland, even it is diminishing after the end of socialism. According to polls of CBOS from last September, 39 percent of Poles dislike Germans. Poles are suspicious that Germans are allied with Russians in economic projects againts the interests of Poland – prime example is pipeline Nord Stream planned to go around Poland through Baltic Sea. It reminds Poles about Molotov-Ribbentrop pact or three divisions of Poland.
Former chancellor Gerhard Schröder is sitting at executive board of Nord Stream. The same man was at the head of Germany, while export from Russia to Germany increased of fifty percent. Journalist from Economist Edward Lucas has written in his book „New Cold War“ about new relations between Russia and West – and particularly Germany: „Russia has spotted that the weakest link in the Western approach to life is inattention to the ethical and moral basis of capitalism: if only money matters, then why is the Kremlin’s money worse than anyone else’s?“
But Poles and Baltic peoples have add to this their historical experience. Any agreements between Russia and Germany are source of hard shudder. That is the reason why they want common EU energy policy, for example.
Czechs are among all postcommunist Centraleuropeans the most pragmatic ones. This attitude is very close to western one illustrated by managers of Shel or BP companies. They were stripped by the Kremlin of many of their assets but they still want to make a business in Russia because it is too big, too underdeveloped and too magnetic market. According to two-years old poll of SC&C agency, Czechs even count Germans as sympathetic nation.

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