12 years since landmark speech by Polish leader in Georgia    

Wednesday marks exactly 12 years since a former Polish leader warned the international community over Russia in a landmark speech in Georgia, public broadcaster Polish Radio’s IAR news agency reported.

The late Polish President Lech Kaczyński (left), pictured during a rally in Tbilisi, Georgia, on August 12, 2008.

Photo: PAP/Radek Pietruszka

Poland's President Lech Kaczyński in August 2008 traveled to Tbilisi together with the presidents of Ukraine, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia to show solidarity with Georgia in the face of Russia's invasion of that country, according to accounts by officials.

He said at the time: "Today Georgia, tomorrow Ukraine, the day after tomorrow the Baltic states, and then, perhaps, the time will come for my country, Poland."

He also appealed to the European Union, NATO and the United States to oppose Russia's invasion of Georgia, the IAR news agency has reported.

Poland, Lithuania, Latvia and Ukraine in 2018 called on Russia to "reverse its illegal recognition of the so-called independence" of the Georgian regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia.

The foreign ministers of Poland, Lithuania and Latvia and the deputy prime minister of Ukraine visited Georgia in August 2018 on a trip marking 10 years since Russia’s invasion of that country, the IAR news agency reported at the time.

The joint trip to Tbilisi followed in the footsteps of the late Polish leader Lech Kaczyński, who in August 2008 organised a visit in support of Georgia.

Former NATO chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen has said that Poland's Lech Kaczyński was right when he in 2008 warned the international community over Russia's intentions regarding Georgia as well as Ukraine.

Lech Kaczyński died on April 10, 2010, when a Polish plane carrying him, his wife, and 94 others, mainly political and military top brass, crashed while trying to land at the Smolensk airfield in western Russia. All aboard were killed.

A monument in honour of Lech Kaczyński in the Georgian capital Tbilisi. Photo: Kancelaria Sejmu / Łukasz Błasikiewicz [CC BY 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

(gs/pk)

Source: IAR, TVP Info