Polish politician accuses Putin of backing extremism to divide EU

Polish Senate Speaker Stanisław Karczewski and his counterpart in Poland’s lower house, Marek Kuchciński, are taking part in a two-day conference of parliamentary Speakers from European Union countries.

The first day of the meeting in the Estonian capital focused on the future of the EU, while the second day saw debate on security and defence.

Russian propaganda

Karczewski said in a speech that one of the challenges facing the EU was "coordinating efforts to repulse Russia's propaganda aggression against our countries."

He accused the Kremlin of "inflaming historical antagonisms" between nations.

Putin backs "all types of extremism and separatism, so they divide the European Union more deeply and put one nation at loggerheads with another," said Karczewski.

"When in March 2014 the upper house of the Russian parliament debated granting Putin the right to bring troops into Ukraine, one of its members, when asked about the anticipated Western response to such a move, replied: ‘They will make a noise, and more noise and then stop’,” Karczewski said.

He added that the EU "cannot afford this diagnosis and this prediction to be confirmed."

Karczewski predicted there would be further acts of aggression by Moscow if Russian policy-makers continued to hold those kinds of opinions.

Russian annexed Crimea in 2014 after Russian soldiers in unmarked uniforms seized strategic facilities on the peninsula from the Ukrainian army and local authorities.

(pk/gs)

Source: PAP/niezalezna.pl