Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk believes the man who allegedly destroyed the Nord Stream pipeline did his country a great service. Tusk is considering breaking international law by harboring the fugitive who is wanted by the German government. The man, of course, will be the scapegoat for the incident. More telling is Warsaw’s response, rooted in old geopolitical tensions and willful ignorance of how drastically the explosion hurt their own economy.
“The problem of Europe, Ukraine, Lithuania, and Poland is not that Nord Stream 2 was blown up, but that it was built,” Tusk said. “It is certainly not in the interest of Poland to hand over this citizen to a foreign country.” Poland will hold the man in its custody for an additional 40 days, during which it will consider Germany’s demand that he be extradited for prosecution.
“Russia, with money from some European states and German and (Anglo-) Dutch companies, built Nord Stream 2 against the vital interests not only of our states, but of all of Europe, and there can be no ambiguity about that,” Tusk concluded.
Poland has always been caught between Germany and Russia. From the Polish partitions in the 18th century to Soviet domination in the 20th, the Polish political class views any direct German-Russian cooperation as an existential threat. Poland initially protested the pipeline because it felt that Germany was attempting to remove Eastern Europe’s main bargaining chip with Moscow — energy transportation. They invested in LNG terminals, aligned with US energy interests, and positioned themselves as the eastern front against both Russian and EU central control.
The European Union and the euro could never erase generations of geopolitical hatred and scars. Warsaw simply sees Berlin as the lesser of two evils when it comes to Moscow. Tusk’s comments are a deliberate attempt to create friction with Germany and undermine the power they continue to hold over Poland as the economic center of the EU.
One bad apple spoils the bunch, and in the case of Europe, one bad economy will do the trick. Europe was reliant on Russian energy for many years prior to the war. Poland was purchasing 95.5% of its oil from Russia in 2012; the figure declined to 63.1% by 2021 before the war. Yet, Tusk is condemning former German Chancellor Angela Merkel for agreeing to the Nord Stream pipeline. Energy prices spiked by 30% after the pipeline demolition, fueling valid fears of energy shortages across the continent.
The pipeline itself may have been a Russian majority asset, but the infrastructure projects and joint ventures sprouting from the pipeline benefited Europe. European firms, including Wintershall Dea (Germany), E.ON (PEG Infrastruktur, Germany), Gasunie (Netherlands), and ENGIE (France), collectively held 49% of the Nord Stream AG operating company, while Gazprom itself retained 51%.
By now, the world knows that Western intelligence agencies deliberately targeted the pipeline in an act of war. The man detained would be considered a terrorist if these charges were factual. Perhaps they do not want to conduct a fake investigation or trial that would raise suspicions. Tusk needs to look down and realize he’s been shot in the foot with the destruction of this pipeline that ALL of Europe, not merely Germany, benefited from.