Eastern Europe gets jittery over Russia
NEWS ANALYSIS
Poland, Ukraine, Moldova and the Czech Republic are among those worried that they could be next after the invasion of Georgia.
WARSAW — Signing a missile-defense deal with its good friend the United States has earned Poland nothing less than the threat of nuclear attack from Russia -- a threat that might not sound so empty these days, given Moscow's bloody battle with Georgia.
That conflict has plunged Europe into serious crisis, sending waves of jitters through Poland and other eastern nations, once-occupied parts of a Soviet Empire that some fear Russia may want to reconstruct. Russia's actions have also succeeded in driving deeper the wedge between Europe's East and West.
"Slowly, the Iron Curtain is being rebuilt," said Jacek Palasinski, veteran foreign affairs commentator for the Polish television network TVN24. "Europe will be divided again -- the lines are different, pushed farther east, but the division is the same. And dangerous."
Ukraine and Moldova are worried that they could be Russia's next targets. The Czech Republic, on the eve of the 40th anniversary of a Soviet invasion that crushed the Prague Spring reform movement, is fretting about history repeating itself. Many Eastern European nations, Poland chief among them, are eager to find safe haven, and have turned to Washington for guidance and reassurance and partnerships.
But the fact that the distracted and overly stretched Bush administration took little concrete action to protect Georgia from Russia's wrath must also give pause to nations that would throw their lot completely with the U.S. Is the strategic alliance that many Eastern European countries have been building with the U.S. since the fall of communism nearly two decades ago still worth the risks?
"What other options have you got?" said Zbigniew Lewicki, a political scientist at the University of Warsaw. "You cannot conduct foreign policy based on fear of Russia. We've been through this before. Ukraine knows it, the Baltic Republics know it.
"I don't think Russia is an immediate threat to us in the military sense. But they are a nasty neighbor," he added. "An alliance with the United States is a long-term investment."
Poland, a member of both NATO and the European Union, views the U.S. as its most reliable ally, far more trustworthy than Western European nations including France or Germany, which Polish President Lech Kaczynski accused over the weekend of being too timid on Russia.
- U.S., Russia to discuss missile defense effort Dec 09, 2007
- U.S., Poland reach deal on missile base Aug 15, 2008
- Russia President Dmitry Medvedev warms up toward U.S. Nov 16, 2008
