Paul
Goble
Staunton, March 19 – A Polish
journalist pointed out the obvious, that after Vladimir Putin closed Russia’s borders,
residents of the Russian exclave in Kaliningrad faced difficulties in getting
supplies because many of them have gotten used to going over the borders to
Poland and Lithuania to purchase them (https://wyborcza.pl/7,75399,25796237,koronawirus-odcina-obwod-kaliningradzki.htm).
Several readers of his article in
Warsaw’s Gazeta Wyborcza commented that this might be a good time for
Poland to absorb Kaliningrad, observations that have triggered near hysterical
reactions in the Russian capital as well as efforts to redirect Poland’s attentions
to what some in Moscow believe is the coming collapse of Ukraine.
Igor Korotchenko, a specialist in
the defense ministry’s social council, dismissed such Polish interest saying that
“it would be simpler for the Poles to occupy the moon than to take Kaliningrad
oblast.” Others saw the hand of NATO, and still others, including deputies and
senators warned that if Poland tried, it would cease to exist (in24.org/world/39010 and politobzor.net/212760-nado-prisoedinyat-kaliningrad-polyaki-o-zakrytii-granic-es-iz-za-virusa.html).
But
perhaps the most interesting if insidious comments came from those in Moscow
who suggested that Warsaw is more interested in Western Belarus than in
Kaliningrad and others who argued that Poland should prepare itself as Russia
is doing to absorb portions of Ukraine after it collapses (kp.ru/daily/27107.7/4181429/, vz.ru/politics/2020/3/20/1029879.html
and politobzor.net/212846-negativnyy-scenariy-rossiya-i-polsha-dolzhny-podgotovitsya-k-raspadu-ukrainy.html).
Such comments, triggered not by another
government’s declaration but by a newspaper reader in a neighboring country,
show the contempt such Russians have for the countries in between and their
belief that borders can and perhaps should be redrawn as long as those changes
can be presented as benefitting Russia.
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