The Washington Post - USA (2022-03-27)

SUNDAY, MARCH 27 , 2022. THE WASHINGTON POST EZ RE A

war in ukraine

BY TYLER PAGER,

EMILY RAUHALA,

ASHLEY PARKER

AND ISAAC STANLEY-BECKER

warsaw — A s a presidential c an-
didate, Joe Biden cited Poland a s a
country at risk of succumbing to
“the rise of totalitarian regimes.”
As president, Biden and his
team were blindsided — and frus-
trated — earlier this month when
Poland announced it was ready to
route MiG-29 fighter jets through
a U.S. air base to Ukraine.
But on Friday, President Biden
arrived in Poland and referred to
Andrzej Duda, the country’s presi-
dent, as a “brother” — praising
him for “living up” to his obliga-
tions as a leader in responding to
the humanitarian crisis resulting
from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Biden’s two-day visit to Poland
— which included stops in
Rzeszow, in the southeast of the
country, and Warsaw — under-
scores the rapidly changing na-
ture of the U.S.-Poland relation-
ship, which has transformed into
a close partnership in the face of
Russia’s invasion of neighboring
Ukraine.
Arriving at Poland’s Presiden-
tial Palace for a meeting with
Duda on Saturday afternoon,
Biden embraced the Polish leader
and the two men beamed at the
cameras as they shook hands and
Biden placed his other hand on
Duda’s shoulder.
At the start of an expanded
bilateral meeting, Duda said that
the relationship between the
United States and Poland is “flour-
ishing” and that the bond was
“strengthened immensely” by
Biden’s visit.
In his remarks, Biden empha-
sized the United States’ enduring
commitment to defending NATO
member states, seeking to reas-
sure the Polish people, who Duda
said feel a “great sense of threat”
because of Russia’s aggression.
“We take Article 5 as a sacred
commitment,” Biden said, refer-
ring to the alliance’s collective
defense pact. “Not a throwaway, a
sacred commitment that relates
to every member of NATO.”
Biden’s visit comes at a r emark-
able moment for Poland. In the
lead-up to the Russian invasion of
Ukraine, the country made inter-
national headlines for its hard-
line stance on refugees, its anti-
LGBTQ policies and its fraught
relationship with both the United
States and Europe.
Biden seemingly made refer-
ence to some of the leaders’ ideo-
logical differences on Saturday.
“The most important thing that
binds us together are our values:
freedom, freedom of the press...
that government is transparent,
making sure people have the right
to vote,” he said.
But in recent weeks, Polish
leaders have pivoted from attack-
ing some of the core institutions
of liberal democracy to touting
their role as defenders of Euro-
pean unity and values.
“Your presence here, Mr. Presi-
dent, first of all, sends a very big
sign of unity,” Duda said Friday
before he and Biden received a
briefing in Rzeszow on humani-
tarian efforts. “This is a huge sign
of support and Euro-Atlantic uni-
ty — unity with my country, with
Poland. It demonstrates great
friendship between Poland and
the United States, and a very pro-
found alliance.”
The fortified bond between Po-
land and the United States could
be temporary, however. The two
countries have already clashed
briefly over the MiG fighter jet
issue, and fissures are emerging
over how many refugees Poland
has already welcomed. Experts
say they hope that Biden will not
ignore human rights concerns
with Poland simply because of the
Ukraine crisis.
But for now, Warsaw finds itself
at the very center of the transat-
lantic response. It is a front-line
NATO state hosting a growing
number of troops and weapons, as
well as serving as a hub for sup-
plies bound for Ukraine and the
site of a historic humanitarian
emergency. Poland currently
hosts 2.2 million of the 3.7 million
Ukrainians who have fled the war,
according to United Nations’ esti-
mates.
“We do not call them ‘refu-
gees,’ ” Duda said Friday. “They
are our guests, our brothers, our
neighbors from Ukraine who to-
day are in a very difficult situa-

largest broadcaster, TVN, w hich i s

owned by Discovery, a U.S. firm.

Duda ultimately vetoed the legis-

lation, allowing Discovery to keep

its majority share.

Ties with the European Union

have been even rockier. For years

now, Poland has been caught in a

bitter dispute with the bloc over

democratic backsliding, particu-

larly when it comes to the rule of

law.

Since coming to power in 2015,

the Law and Justice party has

asserted sweeping executive au-

thority over the judiciary — re-

making the process of appointing,

promoting and disciplining judg-

es. In 2017, a commission of the

Council of Europe warned that

the reorganization of the judici-

ary bore a “striking resemblance

with the institutions which exist-

ed in the Soviet Union and its

satellites.”

It h as also sought to turn p ublic

media into an organ of the party,

prompting a rebuke from Report-

ers Without Borders, which stated

that the country’s public media

outlets “have been transformed

into government propaganda

mouthpieces.”

Poland’s leaders are now press-

ing Brussels to unfreeze billions of

dollars in pandemic recovery

funds withheld over questions

about the politicization of Po-

land’s judiciary, arguing that the

money is needed to address the

refugee crisis.

Human rights groups and oth-

ers question h ow pandemic recov-

ery money — which is earmarked

for specific purposes over longer

periods of time — would help

refugees now, particularly since

much of the cost so far has been

borne by ordinary Polish citizens,

not the government.

Camino Mortera-Martinez,

head of the Brussels office of the

Center for European Reform, said

she worries that the Ukraine crisis

will effectively g rant Poland a “get

out of jail free pass.”

She believes the European

Commission will unfreeze the

money “not because Poland needs

it, but because it does not want to

risk the unity of the bloc at this

moment.”

Still, Biden’s hastily planned

stop here comes at a crucial time

for Poland, and his presence is

both substantively and symboli-

cally important.

Biden’s visit “gives hope and

security to people in Poland, and

probably also relief to many

Ukrainians,” said Ryszard Sch-

nepf, a former Polish ambassador

to the United States.

The exigencies of Russia’s war,

Schnepf added, have caused the

government in Warsaw to bind

itself more closely to its Western

partners — a display of unity at

odds with deepening tensions

over Poland’s attacks on the rule of

law, the independence of the me-

dia and the rights of LGBT people.

Schnepf said that in supporting

Poland in this moment, Biden “is

not forgetting about the past,” but

simply shoring up a crucial ally in

the ongoing crisis with Ukraine.

“It is significant to host the

leader of the most important ally

of Poland, as far as security is

concerned,” Schnepf said. “It

shows us that this is a very person-

al involvement from President

Biden.”

Rauhala reported from Brussels and

Stanley-Becker reported from Berlin.

Quentin Ariès in Brussels contributed

to this report.

After years drifting

apart, Poland begins

to embrace the West

BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE/GETTY IMAGES

ABOVE: Polish President Andrzej Duda, left, and President Biden review a military honor guard during a ceremony Saturday in Warsaw.

Duda said the relationship between the United States and Poland is “flourishing.” BELOW: People await Biden’s arrival at Castle Square.

ALEKSANDRA SZMIGIEL/REUTERS

tion.”

On Saturday, Biden visited ref-

ugees at PGE Narodowy Stadium

in Warsaw, meeting with the city’s

mayor, Rafal Trzaskowski.

The president, without a tie

and wearing a Beau Biden Foun-

dation hat, traversed a crowd of

refugees. At one point, he picked

up a little girl in a pink coat and

pigtails and took a selfie with her.

At another, he embraced a woman

in what appeared to be an emo-

tional conversation.

As h e was exiting, the p resident

told reporters he had met some

refugees from Mariupol, a Ukrai-

nian city that has been under

siege from Russian forces, and

said he is always surprised by “the

depth and the strength of the

human spirit.” When asked about

what the stop made him think

about President Vladimir Putin,

he called the Russian leader “a

butcher.”

But tensions over refugees have

started to surface publicly.

Trzaskowski, Warsaw’s mayor,

warned in an interview with The

Washington Post recently that the

city’s services w ere at r isk of being

overwhelmed.

“In 2015, we had 300,000 to

400,0 00 people coming into Eu-

rope every month. We just had

300,000 people come into War-

saw in three weeks,” he said. “We

want to take everyone who needs

help, but how many kids can we

take into schools? How can we do

everything we can so the health

system doesn’t break down in our

city?”

And even as Poland shoulders

the heaviest migratory burden

stemming from the war, its lead-

ers appear reluctant to embrace a

Europe-wide quota system for re-

settling refugees because it could

be applied to future emergencies,

preferring an ad hoc approach,

according to European diplomats

familiar with the discussions, who

spoke on the condition of ano-

nymity to discuss sensitive issues.

Poland’s Interior Ministry did

not respond to a request for com-

ment about its position on a refu-

gee quota.

Poland is also turning back mi-

grants from the Middle East at its

border with Belarus, part of a

geopolitical standoff with that

country.

Some view Russia’s unpro-

voked assault on Ukraine as an “I

told you so” moment for Poland,

which, like the Baltics and other

countries in Eastern and Central

Europe, has long been wary of

Russia.

“There is a realization in the

West that successive Polish and

Central European governments

have warned about Putin for 20

years,” said Radoslaw Sikorski, a

Polish member of the European

Parliament and a former foreign

minister. “There is a willingness

to listen now to what we are

saying — and this moment should

be grasped.”

Poland’s political makeover

comes after years of acrimony

between the ruling Law and Jus-

tice party, or PiS, and Washington

and Brussels. Though Poland’s

populist leadership cultivated

close ties with Washington under

President Donald Trump, Biden

has been cooler.

As a candidate he condemned

the creation of so-called “LGBT-

free zones” in Poland, tweeting

that they have “no place in the

European Union or anywhere in

the world.” In 2020, he cited Po-

land alongside H ungary and Bela-

rus as countries where democracy

was under threat.

The Polish ruling party also

angered Washington last year

with plans for a media law that

appeared targeted at Poland’s

“This is a huge sign of

support and Euro-

Atlantic unity. ... It

demonstrates great

friendship between

Poland and the United

States, and a very

profound alliance.”

Polish President Andrzej Duda,

on President Biden’s visit

Google Career Certificates help

career switchers like Michael

launch new careers in fast-growing

fields of data analytics, project

management, and more. Certificate

graduates can connect with over

150 national and local employers

that are hiring.

Learn more at

grow.google/certificates

Population Health Analyst at Dignity Health.

One of over 70,000 Google Career

Certificate graduates.

After completing the

Google Career Certificate,

I was familiar with all the

tools of the trade and

programs that they use

in real-world applications.

• Michael Pollack
  Bakersfield, California

Meet

Michael,