Russians practise nuke strike in Polish 'war game'
Monday November 02 2009
Russia has provoked outrage in Poland by simulating a nuclear attack on the country during military exercises.
The armed forces are said to have carried out "war games" in which nuclear missiles were fired and troops simulated an amphibious landing on the country's coast.
Documents obtained by 'Wprost', a Polish news magazine, said the exercise was carried out in conjunction with soldiers from Belarus.
The manoeuvres are thought to have been held in September and involved 13,000 Russian and Belarusian troops.
Poland, which has strained relations with both countries, was cast as the "aggressor".
The documents state the exercises, code-named "West", were officially classified as "defensive" but many of the operations appeared to have an offensive nature.
The Russian air force practised using weapons from its nuclear arsenal, while in the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad, which neighbours Poland, Red Army forces stormed a "Polish" beach and attacked a gas pipeline.
The operation also involved the simulated suppression of an uprising by a minority in Belarus. The country has a significant Polish population, which has an uneasy relationship with the Belarussian government.
Wladyslaw Stasiak, chief of Polish president Lech Kaczynski's office and a former head of Poland's national security council, said: "We didn't like the appearance of the exercises. The name harked back to the days of the Warsaw Pact."
Karol Karski, an MP from Poland's Law and Justice, has protested to the European Commission. His colleague, Marek Opiola, said: "It's an attempt to put us in our place. Don't forget all this happened on the 70th anniversary of the Soviet invasion of Poland."
Outrage
Ordinary Poles were outraged and demanded a firm response from their government. One man, identified only as Ted, told Polskie Radio: "Russia has laid bare its real intentions with respect to Poland. Every Pole most now get of the off the fence and be counted as a patriot or a traitor. The blood enemy of our ancestors has begun the confrontation."
Donald Tusk, Poland's prime minister, has tried to build a pragmatic relationship with the Kremlin despite widespread calls in Poland for him to cool ties with Moscow.
After 40 years under Soviet domination, few in Poland trust Russia, and many are increasingly wary of a country they consider as possessing a neo-imperialistic agenda. (© Daily Telegraph, London)
- Matthew Day in Warsaw
Irish Independent
