Radoslaw Sikorski knows the Russian threat well. At 59, the Polish MEP (EPP, right) has long been the spearhead of his country’s diplomacy, as Minister of Defense from 2005 to 2007, then Minister of Foreign Affairs from 2007 to 2014.
Very involved in the Ukrainian crisis of 2014, he played the role of spokesperson for the European Union in kyiv and then pushed for massive Western aid. Eight years later, he can only regret the lack of European investment in Ukraine and the war waged by Vladimir Putin.
L’Express: Last week, Russia targeted a military base located barely 20 kilometers from Poland. Are you worried that your country will be attacked by the Russian army?
Radosław Sikorski: If this were not the case, Poland would not need an army. As far as I know, we are not threatened by Slovakia, the Czech Republic or Germany.
Some Vladimir Putin propagandists talk about Poland. He himself, in a speech, explained that Lenin had made a mistake in giving the right to the republics of the Soviet Union to secede. Its primary ambition focuses on the Baltic countries and Moldova, it already has troops in Kazakhstan and Armenia…
I don’t know if you have the same expression in French, but in Poland they say that appetite comes with eating. We can’t rule anything out. And besides, we’ve been warning you about Putin for decades, it’s time to listen to us.
That is to say ? That NATO should prepare for a Russian attack?
That is to say, Russia is a revisionist autocracy, into which Putin must inject doses of heroin from time to time, in the form of nationalism and neo-imperialism. You can never know who his next victim will be.
As Minister of Foreign Affairs, you regularly asked for more NATO troops in Eastern Europe. Do you think Poland can count on the Atlantic Alliance in the event of Russian aggression?
The 82nd American Airborne Division has settled on our territory, it’s a good start. The British are sending troops, I hope France will soon. We need soldiers where there is danger, not on pretty beaches.
Do you think the West has been naïve to Vladimir Putin?
It was mostly arrogance and a degree of condescension towards Central Europe. Putin has designated us as the enemy for a long time. We, or rather you, have not accepted this reality.
Soldiers walk down an empty street in Odessa, Ukraine, March 17, 2022.
afp.com/BULENT-KILIC
Could this war in Ukraine have been avoided?
Sure. It was a mistake to advise Ukrainians not to fight in Crimea [en 2014]. If they had fought in Crimea, Putin would not have gone to Donbass. This easy victory in Crimea convinced him that the rest could easily follow.
As Minister, you nevertheless sought to establish a better relationship with Moscow…
We’ve all had our reset moments with Russia, with some success by the way. Putin was the first Russian president to visit Katyn [NDLR : lieu d’un massacre de milliers de Polonais par la police soviétique en 1940], he came to Gdansk for the war celebrations. We had set up a committee of Polish and Russian historians to establish the difficult truths of our common history. Putin had authorized the passage through Russia of NATO troops to go to Afghanistan.
Putin only became Putin after 2011. In 2011, demonstrations contested his return as president: he got scared and accused us. Before that he had neo-imperial leanings, but the real fear and hostility started in 2011, and that’s when he walked out of negotiations for a partnership with the European Union.
What can the West do to further support the Ukrainian resistance?
We can all do more. I just made another donation to the Ukrainian Armed Forces. You can do it, anyone can. Just go to the website of the National Bank of Ukraine. We need to do crowdfunding for Ukrainian defence.
Beyond that, we could launch NATO military exercises around Russia, in Alaska or in the Baltic countries. An exercise is currently taking place in Norway. This ensures that Putin does not launch all of his military forces into Ukraine.
We must also begin our rearmament. At present, the Ukrainians have destroyed as many Russian tanks as the French army has. It’s not normal. We can no longer enjoy the benefits of peace, since peace has ended. The rearmament of Germany must take place within a European framework. I hope that Germany will end up taking seriously Emmanuel Macron’s proposals for a real European defence.
We must also accelerate our energy transformation and create a gas union. We should probably continue to buy Russian gas, but we should buy it together to dictate our terms to Putin, not the other way around.
The European Union seems to have been transformed in recent weeks, at least in terms of speeches. Do you think she’s headed in the right direction?
The European Union cannot do much without the support of its Member States. Its evolution depends on them. I am counting on President Macron to continue giving the European Union the vision he has given it so far. I hope other leaders will follow in his footsteps. And for information, I am at the EPP [conservateurs]not at Renew [centristes, dont fait partie LREM].