Page 10 - FSUOGM Week 04 2021

FSUOGM POLICY FSUOGM

Poland calls for EU to get tougher

on Russia after Navalny’s arrest

POLAND THE European Union should apply more pres- in years after at least 100,000 people took to the
sure on Russia following Moscow’s arrest of streets in Moscow and dozens of cities across the
Nord Stream 2 is under dissident Alexey Navalny as well as Russia’s con- country in response to Navalny’s call for protests.
US pressure already. tinued role in conflicts in Ukraine and Georgia, The authorities responded with a widespread
Polish President Andrzej Duda told The Finan- crackdown, which led to thousands of arrests.
cial Times on January 24. Duda said that the EU could hit Russia eco-
Poland has long been wary of Russia, a coun- nomically by targeting the gas producer and
try with which it warred with or was under the exporter Gazprom. That would be a move to
occupation of for the best part of the 20th cen- divide the EU, however, coming at a time when
tury. As a member of Nato, Poland now belongs Gazprom is about to complete its Nord Stream 2
to a military alliance that Russia considers hos- pipeline, a direct gas link to Germany.
tile. Since 2014, the year Russia annexed Crimea "I think that if we limit the possibility of Gaz-
from Ukraine, to January’s arrest of Navalny, prom functioning economically on the territory
Poland has only grown more critical of the way of the EU ... then things including respect for
the EU has been handling its eastern neighbour. international law and for human and political
“Russia is not a country which you can trust, rights in Russia would start moving forward,"
or which shares the same values and goals from Duda said.
the point of view of the rules of democracy as Nord Stream 2 is already under pressure from
Euro-Atlantic states,” Duda said. the US, which heeds central European countries’
As EU foreign ministers are due to discuss warnings that it is as much as an energy supply
the reaction to the arrest of Navalny today, Duda route as a political tool aimed at Ukraine.
told The Financial Times that more sanctions Gazprom continues with the construction of
were “absolutely justified” and that the EU’s Nord Stream 2 on its own after the threat of US
high representative for foreign affairs, Josep sanctions halted the work of a Swiss pipe-laying
Borrell, should revise plans for his Russia trip in subcontractor in December. About 94% of the
February. pipeline has been laid, or 2,300 km out of 2,460
Russia is amidst the biggest domestic turmoil km. ™

P10 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 04 27•January•2021