Polish Ministry Declassifies 2008 Paper on Shifting to Pro-Russian Policy

The Polish Foreign Ministry declassified a document dating 2008 on changing the country’s foreign policy in order to improve relations with Russia, local media reported.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) – The document Theses on Republic of Poland’s Policy Toward Russia and Ukraine was signed by Jaroslaw Bratkiewicz, head Eastern Department of the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the PAP news agency reported. Then Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski reportedly took part in preparing the document.

The paper said that as a result of incompetent assessments Russia was traditionally considered as an “eternal enemy of Poland” and relations between Russian and post-Soviet states were regarded as a zero-sum game.

According to the document, Russia was trying to restore its status of a great power, which, however, did not imply returning to empire ambitions. Moreover, such challenges as the rise of China and Islamist threat urged Russia to cooperate with the West, which saw Russia as an important partner in dealing with a number of problems including fighting terrorism., the document said.

Authors of the document also called on revising relations with Ukraine making them more pragmatic.

Since 2014, relations between Russia and western countries including Poland deteriorated amid the crisis in Ukraine, and Washington as well as Brussels and their allies have introduced several rounds of anti-Russia sanctions over Moscow's alleged involvement in the Ukrainian conflict.