Polish foreign minister Radek Sikorski has without doubt worked for strengthening relations with both Russia and Germany lately. However, leaked diplomatic cables published by Wikileaks indicate that German-Russian cooperation also worries him:
Polish foreign minister Radek Sikorski in a private conversation with US diplomats in 2008 said that Germany protects Russian interests in Nato in return for access to the Russian market.
"Asked what the US strategy should be towards Germany and Russia, Sikorski responded that Germany appears to have a deal with Russia. 'They'll play with Russia and in return German companies will get hundreds of billions of euros of business there, a pretty good deal'."
Sikorski made the comment after Germany opposed giving Georgia and Ukraine a Membership Action Plan (MAP) at a Nato summit in Bucharest.
The Nato decision came shortly before the Russia-Georgia war in the summer of 2008. Several commentators later said a positive MAP decision would have prevented the conflict, which has ended up with Russian occupying two Georgian provinces.
Germany at the time was ruled by a coalition of the centre-right CDU and centre-left SPD parties. The then SPD foreign minister, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, was openly pro-Russian and is a close associate of former German chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, who now works for the German-Russian gas pipeline firm, Nord Stream.
Read the entire article here
Steinmeier is no longer German foreign minister, but not so much seems to have changed. Germany in March sided with Russia when the UN Security Council voted to give NATO a mandate for Libya air strikes. Former chancellor Gerhard Schröder, who now is on Russian Gazprom/Nord Stream´s payroll, is still an influential figure promoting Russian interests. There is a clear danger that envirofundamentalist groups, supported by German and Russian business interests, will succeed in preventing Poland from utilizing its enormous shale gas potential.
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