We must find a way to be good partners with Russia – Polish journalist

Relations with Russia remain one of the crucial points of Polish policy, and Poland now has to choose a way to establish them.

Michal Karnowski, journalist and author, believes that it is very likely that Poland will overcome its stereotypes about Russia and accept that Russia is changing. “It is true that the new vision of Russia appeared in Poland,” he said. He also added that establishing a new type of relations with Russia is one of the main objectives of Polish politics. However, there are two ways of solving the issue. “One way, represented by Bronisław Komorowski, the president, and Donald Tusk, the prime minister, is that we should trust Russia and we should reset the relationship between Poland and Russia, because we started new relationship between Poland and Germany,” explained Karnowski. Another stand is represented by Jaroslaw Kaczynski, the leader of opposition, who believes Poland should not trust Russia and should act as part of the EU and as a leader of Eastern Europe. According to Karnowski, Russian-Polish relations mainly depend on whether Russia can treat Poland as an equal, self-sufficient state. “We fear that Russia treats us not as a normal country, as a part of the EU, but as something strange, something which is part of its sphere,” he told RT.Russian President Dmitry Medvedev is making a two-day visit to Poland, which could become a turning point in Russian-Polish relations. Ahead of the visit, Medvedev spoke with the Polish mass media about the development of the two countries’ relations, the Katyn massacre and the state of democracy in Russia.