DISINFO: Poland plans to establish an anti-Russian buffer zone including Belarus
SUMMARY
The main ideas behind Poland’s geopolitical doctrine after 1989 (named after Giedroyc and Mieroszewski) are the following:
The need to weaken Russian positions in Eastern Europe through the creation of a buffer zone of countries opposing Russia;
The countries of this buffer zone should be under the sphere of economic and humanitarian interests of Poland. This means – no use of Russian energy sources by these countries and their use as a source of cheap labour force and a market for Polish goods;
Polish assistance with reforms and democratisation as well as reforming their national consciousness into anti-Russian one.
This doctrine de facto envisages (…) direct intervention into domestic affairs of the countries, which used to be part of Rzeczpospolita.
RESPONSE
This is a conspiracy theory and misrepresentation of actual Giedroyc-Mieroszewski doctrine. It contains recurring pro-Kremlin narratives about Poland's plans to partition Belarus and establish the Fourth Republic and to disrupt Belarus-Russia ties. The mentioned doctrine was developed in the 1970s by Polish émigrés Jerzy Giedroyc and Juliusz Mieroszewski. The doctrine urged the need to rebuild good relations among Central and Eastern European countries and foresaw Poland's relations with Ukraine, Lithuania and Belarus as the foundation of its foreign policy. This called for Poland to reject any imperial ambitions and controversial territorial claims, and to accept the post-war border changes. The doctrine supported independence for Belarus and Ukraine. It did not promote the idea to establish a Polish empire at the expense of Poland's eastern neighbours. See here for more information about the Giedroyc-Mieroszewski doctrine. Claims about Poland's alleged ''imperial dreams'' are part of recurring disinformation narrative, whose aim is to deteriorate Poland’s relations with its neighbours. See earlier disinformation messages alleging that Poland has plans to turn Belarus into a vassal, anti-Russian state with Belarus’ western part being an eastern part of a new Polish state, that the Polish doctrine of IV Rzeczpospolita is part of the US doctrine of global dominance, and that IV Rzeczpospolita program's objectives are to trick, deceive, derussify and to take away the sense of self-preservation from Belarusian society as well as to disrupt the allied relations between Belarus and Russia.