Hoping to improve Polish-Russian relations

Poland's Prime Minister Donald Tusk is holding talks with President Vladimir Putin and others in Moscow today. Tomasz Bielecki considers the first visit to Russia by a Polish head of government since 2001 as an indication of détente. "The Kremlin is striving to improve relations to the west and needs a normalisation of relations to Warsaw to achieve this goal. Russian diplomats admit that Moscow learned to appreciate Poland's strong position in the EU only recently. ... The only tangible effect of a moderate thaw between Poland and Russia can be the development of economic relations. Even though Moscow often exploits trade in energy commodities to play international games, it can be very pragmatic in other realms. The prime example is Russia's relations with Latvia. Despite acrimonious political disputes with the Kremlin, this country has been conducting trade with Russia intensely over the past two years."

» full article (external link, Polish)
More from the press review on the subject » International Relations, » Poland, » Russia
All available articles from » Tomasz Bielecki

» To the complete press review of Friday, February 8, 2008