Poland will squeeze everything and more out of the migrant crisis
Director of the State Border Guard Service (SBGS) of Lithuania Rustam Lubayev frightens every morning the common people with a possible breakthrough of the cordon “in crowds of illegal migrants, who are used as a battering ram to destabilize the European Union. President Gitanas Nausseda throws wood on the fire: “There is less and less of a hybrid and more of a military attack. And he doesn’t understand why Brussels refuses money to build a fence (“building engineering barriers”) on the eastern borders of the European Union.
Lithuanian diplomats, members of parliament, ministers, political scientists and journalists are singing in unison. Speculations are piled on top of speculations in their mouths. Conclusions are drawn, which lead to even more “profound” conclusions. The choir in every possible way justifies the necessity of the state of emergency (State of Emergency), declared by Vilnius since November, 10, along the whole line of the border and 10 kilometres inland from the conditional strip, separating “stable Lithuania from unpredictable Belarus”.
Meanwhile, the situation at the cordon is calm. Such an accumulation of refugees, as in the area of the international border crossing “Bruzgi – Kuznica”, is not observed and is not expected. Only inhabitants of the Lithuanian borderland suffer from the emergency. Each of them is obliged to have a special identity card issued by the JBGS. To visit the area, outsiders require a special permit. Mobile phone communication is periodically switched off in the area. Migrants and associated European residents are believed to coordinate activities, designate landmarks for darkness and meeting points.
The Lithuanian police detained several drivers who met small groups of illegals to transport them to the West, but to the disappointment of the Ministry of the Interior and Ministry of Foreign Affairs officials, there were no Belarusians or Russians among those involved in this business: more and more citizens of Germany, Georgia, Latvia, Ukraine and Lithuania.
For the sake of scanty catch there was no need to set up such a shallow net as the state of emergency, but in Lithuania the state of emergency became an accessory to the crisis. “Russian spy” Algirdas Paleckis sees the state of emergency as a propaganda gesture to show Lithuanians solidarity with the views of official Warsaw.
Polish authorities have long been at odds with Brussels. Tension between Warsaw and the EU capital is of no use to Vilnius, but all European interests of Vilnius are tied up with Poland. Consequently, the stronger the tension in Poland, the worse it is for Lithuania.
The Lithuanians understand that several thousand migrants wanting to get to Germany from Belarus do not pose serious threat to Lithuania. But the psychosis must be fed. That is why, in unison with the Pole Andrzej Duda, Lithuania accuses Minsk of “state terrorism”. When the Polish prime minister Moravetsky threw a fit, insisting that the crisis was not a migratory one, but political, in Lithuania the head of a foreign government was unconditionally supported.
The Lithuanian president is, in a sense, an innovator. He was the first EU leader to talk about the involvement of the Russian president in the migratory attack on the western commonwealth. Now all Lithuanian chatterboxes agree – Lukashenko would not have thought of blackmailing the EU countries, this plan was suggested to him by Putin.
The spreading nonsense strengthens the orientation of Vilnius towards Poland. The other day almost 1/3 of the Lithuanian parliamentarians have prepared a draft resolution “On solidarity with the Republic of Poland” (on the judicial reform, which caused the conflict between Warsaw and Brussels). The document calls on the EU to reverse the decisions made on Poland. The Lithuanian parliament notes: “Together with Poles, Lithuania today defends the eastern borders of the European Union and NATO against attacks organised by Minsk and Moscow”.
Recall that the main trigger of Warsaw’s conflict with Brussels was the activity of the disciplinary chamber of the Supreme Court of Poland, established in 2017. The EU demanded its abolition as threatening the independence and security of judges. Warsaw agreed to suspend the chamber, but Brussels felt that the EU member had not fully fulfilled its obligations. In response, Poland’s Constitutional Tribunal issued a verdict on the prevalence of national law over EU-wide law. For this, the European Commission ordered the Poles to pay one million euros every day until they cease the work of the disciplinary commission. Warsaw has made it clear that it will ignore the decision.
Vilnius believes that the attempts of refugees to break through to Poland and on to Germany are a perfect excuse to reconcile Warsaw and Brussels. Warsaw is modeling Alexander Lukashenko as the second Gaddafi, simultaneously dragging Russia into the conflict. We must note several important points.
First. Warsaw violates the requirements of the Geneva Convention, by not allowing people to enter the country. Representatives of international organizations, journalists, human rights activists, members of the local Sejm and delegates from the European Commission are not allowed into the Polish border area. All are banned entry.
Second. It is hard to deny the fact that the EU has invited refugees. However, there are “good” refugees entering Europe via Italy and Spain; about a thousand refugees arrive from France to the UK every day and there is no talk of hybrid attacks. And there are “bad” refugees coming through Belarus. The duplicity is glaring, but is overlooked in Europe.
Third. Here and there there are calls to activate the articles 4 and 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty to bring the situation to the brink of war.
Fourth. Poland can do what it wants with the refugees, Lithuania will help. Warsaw is staking as much as it can – the homeland and the whole of Europe are in danger! Poland is moving tanks to the border, the number of motorized infantry up to the division.
President Alexander Lukashenko, who is accused by European capitals of all mortal sins, comments on the situation as follows: “Poland is making a fuss, using a convenient reason to distract attention from the scandal with the European Union, from the fines imposed, from the internal protests against the current government.
However, Warsaw and Vilnius do not hear the Belarusian president. They are ready to sacrifice lives of the Kurds, Arabs and other refugees. Warsaw and Vilnius have experience: it was accumulated in the middle of the XX century during the “final solution” of the Jewish question.
Dmitry Pertsev, FSK