In the first quarter of this year, the Polish media paid enough attention to issues of European and world security. Among the interesting ones there is, for example, a recent article in one of Poland’s leading newspapers "Rzeczpospolita", entitled "The war in Georgia has changed the Swedish defence doctrine." The author is an expert of the Polish Center for Eastern Studies (Ośrodok Studiów Wschodnich) Justina Gotkovska.
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| Map of military actions of the Russian-Georgian war "The war in Georgia had changed the Swedish defence doctrine" http://www.besttoday.ru/ |
Comparatively plenty of time has passed since that war, the political conclusions concerning it and its consequences, have been drawn and are known to all. And what do these findings encourage practitioners, in particular, the military ones, to do?
In Sweden, reports Yu.Gotkovska, analyzing the Russian-Georgian war of 2008, they decided to critically look at the current national defence capability of the country. Obviously, the Swedish believe they have enough grounds for this by analyzing their own strength and resources, financial and logistical support of the Army.
By the way, the Russian-Georgian war in 2008 made first of all Russians think about the modernization of their Armed Forces (after all, to fight, even for a long time, with the Chechen guerrilla units - that's one thing, but to be engaged in combat with the Georgian Army that is in a state of modernization under the supervision of Western and US experts - is quite a different thing).
The author also tells us that, perhaps, that is how were thinking and came to such conclusions military experts of Sweden, who, studying the Russian-Georgian war and the experience of, as we like to say, "a small, mobile and professional (in the sense of mercenary)" Army of Georgia, have questioned the strength of their own military muscles. Because of earlier (under political pressure) cuts in the army, when within the framework of the reform of 1990s some military bases were eliminated and universal conscription was cancelled in 2010, at present the official Stockholm again has to return to military matters, to take care of the defence of the country, knowing that a small mercenary army without adequate mobilization of reserves cannot defend its independence against the numerically stronger and technically powerful aggressor. But what to do? The conclusion is a European-like: Sweden can improve its defensce capabilities, first of all through deepening regional military co-operation with the neighboring countries of Scandinavia, as well as with such NATO members as Germany and Poland.
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Swedish military said that the events in modern warfare develop rapidly and they consider important the fact that Russia did not send a significant number of troops into the region, but their relocation was carried out in a very short time. According to the military, the Swedish army should be able within a week of mobilization to bring to the Armed Forces up to 50,000 people, and in time of peace to have 28,000 troops. |
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Animated map of air-bomb strikes of the Russian Air Force "The events in Chechnya and Georgia show, first of all, the excessive "mythologizing" power of the Russian army, winning single small peoples only because of its large masses of soldiers and tanks" http://rusblog31.blogspot.com/ |
"Gazeta Polska" points out a favorable current geopolitical situation of Poland, which is separated from the possible Russian threat by the territorial buffer of Baltic countries. It was stressed that being a member of NATO gives Poland such an advantage over Scandinavians, as a guaranteed solidarity of members of the Alliance. "The war in Georgia has shown – states the newspaper,- that Poland can influence the world’s opinion and count on its support in the creation of a coalition of states in the region”. However, according to the newspaper, in the interests of the defence of the state, Polish political circles should return to a consensus in the foreign and defense policy, accumulated in the first decades after the restoration of its independence. There is a basis for leading a policy of solidarity: Atlantic, European and regional (countries of Central and Eastern Europe) ones.
At the same time, "Gazeta Polska" is quite sceptical about Russia's military power, pointing out that the events in Chechnya and Georgia show, first of all, the excessive “mythologizing” of the power of the Russian army, winning small peoples only thanks to large masses of its soldiers and tanks. According to the author of the analytical material, economically and logistically Russia is not ready for war, even with a "moderate -weight» opponent, especially if the latter will be desperately defending itself. At this, attention is paid to the fact that now for settling Russian interests in other countries, the Kremlin first of all tries to use Russian agents and lobbyists whose activities pave the way for direct (in a favorable moment) military intervention.
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The aim of forced modernization of the Armed Forces is to bring the Polish Army to NATO standards, equipping the Army, Navy and Air Force with modern weapons, able to "intimidate" potential enemies. Weapons of "deterrence" must be guided missiles of land, air and sea-basing and a long-range action. http://www.newsbalt.ru/ |
Here it has to be mentioned that the theme of the "fifth column" is an unrewarding topic, even if it is raised with good and so-called patriotic intentions. Its, so to speak, caliber cannot play an important role in determining, for example, the military doctrine of the state, its defence funding or principles of forming the army (if only the leading military post of the state is not given to a real "fifth-columner"). Organization of powerful protection of the state directly depends on the professionalism and integrity of the state leadership that enjoys the unconditional people’s support. If some of these characteristics is missing, we should be ready to hear justifications about existence of "agents of influence."
However, in some political circles of Poland there is their own view on the problem. It is known how a few years ago the Polish establishment was alarmed by the report of the Czech Information Service (BIS), which indicated that Russian agents had infiltrated the Czech Parliament, had close ties with politicians and was powerfully influencing businesses of strategic importance and in the sphere of information of the Czech Republic. Polish media quoted the words of the representative of the then Czech Civic Democratic Party (ODS) Martin Kupka who did not exclude that similar problems could happen in other countries of the Central Region.
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ISA - Internal Security Agency (Polish Agencja Bezpieczenstwa Wewnetrznego, ABW) - Poland's intelligence agency, whose mission is to ensure internal security, including counter-intelligence, struggle with terrorism, arms smuggling, drug trafficking, organized crime, corruption and economic crimes http://ru.wikipedia.org |
By the way, a comment in the Polish newspaper "Nash Dziennik" about the reaction of users of social networks to the publication by the Polish Internal Security Agency (ABC) of the list of former secret service functionaries of the Polish People's Republic in a certain way could serve as an example of such a struggle with the agents of influence. "Nash Dziennik" reports that in 1970 - 1990 years, these functionaries were trained in special schools of KGB and, according to ABC, they can, despite their long-term ties with Soviet secret services, constitute a threat to Poland's security. The newspaper is outraged that the former KGB Polish students not only are not ashamed, but are proud of their extraordinary past. Function of a guardsman of the communist regime was not an obstacle for them; it was a reliable pass to business and capital in the Third Rzeczpospolita, as well as a certain guarantee of a beautiful life in capitalism, to struggle against which they had been taught in Soviet special schools.
To be honest, when one is reading this information, certain considerations come to mind and one can even come to a conclusion, "In those special schools training must have been really perfect if they so successfully fit into the current life of Poland." Because, as writes “Nash Dziennik", today these people are well-organized informal group.
And in the next issue it will publish a comment on the report of the Agency of Internal Security of Poland on cooperation in 1977 - 1990 years of the Security Service of the Polish People's Republic and the Soviet KGB. "Nash Dziennik" draws attention to the fact that as a result of access to the Polish segment of the established in 1977 database of Security Services of socialist countries, “Joint system of collecting information about the opponent”, the Intelligence agencies of the Russian Federation shall have the personal details of thousands, if not tens of thousands of Polish citizens. According to experts, the post-Soviet Russian Security Services can use this archive information to achieve specific political goals in modern Russian-Polish relations.
An article in another Polish newspaper “Gazeta Wyborcza” - “Russia. To recruit Chechens. The Army faces a criminal “wave”, takes us back to the theme with which we began our conversation. It was noted that Russia lacks human resources for its Army calls. Therefore, the General Staff of the Armed Forces for the first time in many years had to call to the army ranks residents of Chechnya and Dagestan. The reason for such a decision is that young men from the Muslim Caucasus are physically stronger than their coevals from "Slavic" regions, as families of Caucasians are not under the adverse effects of alcohol, and their children do not go hungry and are under close parental care. Also people from the Caucasus republics are strong in their national solidarity and become informal leaders in soldiers' barracks. It was stated that the removal of personnel deficiency in such a way, causes concern among residents of other Russian regions: their sons-recruits may be victims of violent conflicts in the army, writes "Gazeta Wyborcza".
Obviously, not from a good life military officials initiated the call of Caucasians. By the way, the Caucasus has not disintegrated from Russia, and its population has Russian citizenship and Constitutional rights. As well as the obligation to serve in the Army for all without exception citizens of military age.
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Wisla operation is the largest in size action of resettlement of Ukrainians from border areas deep into Poland. The main goal of it was depriving national partisan formations - UPA, UNA, etc ...of the local population’s support http://www.karty.by/ |
But for some reason neither in Polish media, nor, it seems, in Russian ones, there was a word about what they think in Chechnya or Dagestan families about such a call. Does no one care about their opinion? Or will they have some 100% guarantee that with their sons in soldiers’ barracks everything will be “kharasho” (good)? Will they not be rashly blamed for events in Chechen wars of the last century? Especially by those commanders who had to fight in the Caucasus.
On this occasion, it is appropriate to remember one fact of not so long ago: the post-war Poland, having its own, hardened in battles of the Second World Polish Army, was conducting the first post-war youth calls for service in the Army. “Tough luck” was that of youth from ethnic Ukrainians: they got caught in the whirlpool of "Visla" Operation, the waves of which washed away the indigenous population from its ancestral lands and sprinkled about mainly on the territory of Western Poland. Would these young people go happily to polish recruitment centers with draft notices in hand, remembering the ethnic confrontation of the thirties and forties, and the subsequent post-war years? The answer is no, they would not. At least in the first ten or fifteen years after the war. That is why they were not even sent those papers.
To create a multi-national army of a country immediately after armed conflicts of its citizens on the basis of ethnic hatred is actually impossible. It is almost impossible. Even because of deterioration of health among young people of the so-called title nation. Because you cannot create a real army by an order, even if it's an order of the Commander-in-Chief. An army is created by the call of consciousness of the people seeking to assert its independence, and the need for the passage of the young men of military service has instilled in the family, which is the basic unit of any society.
Today, this is not written in any Western or the Eastern media. Nobody had written about this before the events in Afghanistan, in the same Chechnya, in the Balkans, in the Middle East.
And I would like to read about it in the press of our neighbors. And in ours too…
