Tag Archives: Cold War

Polish president Duda says Russia fomenting new Cold War

WARSAW (Reuters) – Polish President Andrzej Duda accused Russia of fomenting a new Cold War through its actions in Ukraine and Syria, and said Poland was ready to help any future NATO efforts in combating the Islamic State.

In an interview with Reuters, Duda hit back at comments by Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, who last week described East-West relations as descending “into a new Cold War” and said NATO was “hostile and closed” toward Russia.

“If Mr Medvedev talks about a Cold War, then looking at Russian actions, it is clear who is seeking a new Cold War,” Duda, allied to Poland’s ruling Law and Justice Party (PiS) said in an interview in his presidential palace in Warsaw.

“If someone is undertaking aggressive military activities in Ukraine and Syria, if someone is bolstering his military presence near his neighbors … then we have an unequivocal answer regarding who wants to start a new Cold War. Certainly, it is not Poland or the NATO alliance.”

The West says it has satellite images, videos and other evidence that show Russia is providing weapons to anti-government rebels in Ukraine, following Russia’s annexation of Crimea from Ukraine in 2014. Russia denies such accusations.

Poland has long been one of the fiercest critics of Russian actions and PiS is especially mistrustful. It wants a summit in Warsaw this year to bolster NATO’s presence in central and east Europe by positioning troops and equipment on Polish soil.

Duda reiterated Polish ambitions for an “intensive” NATO presence on its territory to be agreed at the July summit, which would be “tantamount to a permanent presence” — an arrangement that would be assured by troop rotations. Some NATO allies are reluctant, out of concern over the cost and the further deterioration with Moscow that would be likely to result.

F-16s AND RECONNAISSANCE

Duda’s unexpected election victory last May was the first ballot win for PiS in almost a decade. It helped the party win a parliamentary vote in October on a campaign of conservative values and more economic equality.

A relatively unknown politician before the election, Duda, 43, sees himself as a spiritual and political heir to Poland’s late president, Lech Kaczynski. Kaczynski, the twin brother of PiS leader Jaroslaw, died in a plane crash in 2010.

Local critics say Duda and Prime Minister Beata Szydlo merely follow the lead of Jaroslaw Kaczynski rather than make their own policy — an accusation he rejected in the interview, saying he was there to implement PiS’s agreed program.

Duda said Poland was ready to participate in any NATO efforts in Syria, but without sending troops, an offer the Polish government has made before. In return, it wants NATO to bolster its presence in eastern Europe.

“We are not shirking our responsibility here,” Duda said. “There are no decisions yet, but we are a member of the alliance.”

Duda said Poland would be willing to use some of its fleet of F-16 fighter jets for reconnaissance missions and to participate in training missions.

A coalition led by the United States is bombing Islamic State targets in Syria and Iraq, where the militant group occupies swathes of territory.

The United States is pressing NATO to play a bigger role in the campaign, putting Washington at odds with Germany and France. They fear the strategy would risk confrontation with Russia, which is conducting its own air strikes in the region in support of its ally, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

All 28 NATO allies are already part of a 66-nation anti-Islamic State coalition, so the United States is looking to NATO to provide equipment, training and the expertise it gained in Afghanistan, where Poland also had troops.

(Additional reporting by Adrian Krajewski, writing by Justyna Pawlak, Editing by Larry King)

Russia warns of new Cold War as east Ukraine violence surges

MUNICH (Reuters) – Violence in eastern Ukraine is intensifying and Russian-backed rebels have moved heavy weaponry back to the front line, international monitors warned on Saturday as Moscow responded by accusing the West of dragging the world back 50 years.

Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev described East-West relations as having “fallen into a new Cold War” and said NATO was “hostile and closed” toward Russia, in the latest sign that peace efforts have made scant progress almost two years since Moscow annexed Crimea.

“I sometimes wonder – are we in 2016 or 1962?,” Medvedev asked in a speech to the Munich Security Conference.

Implementation of a deal agreed in Minsk a year ago, which would allow for the lifting of sanctions on Russia, and a lull in violence late last year raised hopes that the conflict that has killed more than 9,000 people could be resolved quickly.

But Lamberto Zannier, who heads the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) monitoring eastern Ukraine, said the situation had “become difficult again.”

“We see a multiplication of incidents, violations of the ceasefire,” he told Reuters at the Munich Security Conference. “We’ve seen cases of redeployment of heavy armaments closer to the contact line … and multiple rocket launchers, artillery being used,” he said, referring to the heavy weaponry that is meant to be removed under the Minsk deal.

Medvedev accused Kiev of trying to shift the blame onto Moscow for the continued shelling in the industrial regions of eastern Ukraine now under rebel control.

“The Minsk agreements have to be observed by everyone. But we believe that it’s first and foremost up to the Kiev authorities to do that,” he said.

The West says it has satellite images, videos and other evidence to show Russia is providing weapons to the rebels and that Moscow has troops engaged in the conflict that erupted following Russia’s annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea in 2014.

Russia denies such accusations.

NATO’s Supreme Allied Commander Gen. Philip Breedlove said Russia had the power to “dial up and down” the conflict as it wished to put pressure on the government in Kiev but he said NATO did not want, nor currently see, a new Cold War.

AMNESTY

Extended at the end of last year, the Minsk peace deal signed by Russia, Ukraine, France and Germany aims to give Ukraine back control of its border with Russia, see all heavy weapons withdrawn, return hostages and allow an internationally monitored local election in the east.

Zannier said the vote could not happen until there was a ceasefire and even then it would be difficult to do by mid-year because international observers need to be in place.

Medvedev said Ukraine, not Russia, was in breach of the Minsk deal because Kiev was yet to change Ukraine’s constitution to grant special status to eastern Ukraine.

Russia wants an amnesty for mainly Russian-speaking people in the east who seized government buildings during the upheaval of early 2014, when pro-European protesters toppled Russia-backed President Viktor Yanukovich.

“Without this amnesty, these people won’t be able to participate in the elections,” Medvedev said.

Kiev’s Western backers acknowledge the government of President Petro Poroshenko must speed up reforms, especially those tied to its $10-billion International Monetary Fund bailout, but say Russia must respect Ukraine’s sovereignty.

“Neither the people of Ukraine nor their partners in the international community believe they have done enough,” U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said.

(Additional reporting by Warren Stroebel; Editing by Helen Popper and David Evans)