JASMUN

The JASMUN conference has just started. The session was opened by the principal Anna Sobala – Zbroszczyk. In a welcoming speech, she noticed that although we have to face the difficult events of the present day, we cannot be scared or too pessimistic. “We have to believe that we, people, we can make this world better” she said. She encouraged the participants to share ideas, argue and agree on solutions. She wished everyone that they would dare to dream and follow them.

Radosław Sikorski, as the guest of honor of the conference, commented on the current political situation in the world and answered numerous questions from the audience. The Member of the European Parliament drew attention to the threat to the functioning of the current security system in the world in connection with Russia’s aggression in Ukraine. He compared the current crisis to the time before World War II and the decline in the importance of the League of Nations as a result of Italy’s aggression in Abyssinia (today Ethiopia). Russia is now a permanent member of the UN Security Council and an aggressor at the same time. This is mutually exclusive. Sikorski compared Putin to a mad dictator like Hitler or Stalin, scaring the world with nuclear weapons and surrounded by flatterers that distort the image of reality. The card turned and the West turned out to be less degenerated than Putin thought. The most difficult economic sanctions in history were imposed on Russia, the Russian army, considered to be the second army in the world, lost its reputation, and the word of the Russian leader lost its credibility, especially in the face of earlier assurances that Ukraine would not be attacked and as a guarantor of international security. Ukraine and Russia are negotiating, except that on the battlefield, as Clausewitz said, and it is already known that Putin’s main goal of including Ukraine in Russia will not be achieved. The guest stated that despite the officially functioning version of Putin’s election as president in a democratic election, in reality there is a kleptocracy in Russia and the mechanism of succession of power does not work. In tsarist times, the heirs took power, and in the times of communist leaders were changed by the Politburo. Now it is not known how the handover of power can take place. Putin may be struggling not only for his political, but also for his physical survival. According to Sikorski, hope should be sought in supporting the adherents of an authentic democratic system in Russia.

 (text: Beata Ciacek; photo: Beata Ciacek)