DISINFO: Pole’s Card holders can organise a pro-EU Maidan in Kaliningrad
SUMMARY
Throughout the post-Soviet years, Poland carefully surrounded the population of Kaliningrad with the so-called “soft power”. There were thousands of joint projects financed from the EU budget, hundreds of thousands of personal trips in two directions, numerous joint Polish-Russian businesses, and finally, the launch of the [visa-free] small border traffic, enabling people living in the Kaliningrad region to visit Poland en masse.
The distribution of the Pole’s Cards may be used by the Polish special services to “recruit” the Russians, especially taking into consideration the unfounded claims of the Polish politicians towards the Kaliningrad region. The region will be handed over to Poland in the event of an armed conflict with Russia.
After the beginning of the special military operation [24 February 2022], the possession of the Pole’s Card by Kaliningrad's inhabitants seemed to be acceptable, but now, with the active supply of Polish weapons to Ukraine and the number of Polish mercenaries, patriotic Russians should give this document up. The Russian special services should check the information about the Pole’s Card holders in order to prevent a pro-Poland or a pro-EU “Maidan” in Kaliningrad.
RESPONSE
Recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation about aggressive plans of the West regarding the Kaliningrad region and the Western attempts to “encircle Russia”.
Poland does not have any territorial claims to Kaliningrad and it does not prepare any type of hostile action against Russia and the Kaliningrad region in particular.
The Pole’s Card is not an element of a “hybrid war” or the “anti-Russian activities”, but an instrument used to support Poles living abroad, facilitating their visits and possible migration to Poland.
The claim also masks an authoritarian approach to ordinary citizens. Presenting the opportunities of citizens to have cross-border contacts and businesses as just sinister elements in Warsaw's heinous plans, illustrate a neglect of the citizens' interest. According to this approach, citizens are assets of the state and have to serve the state. The state is not to serve the interests of the ordinary citizens.
See previous examples of disinformation messages alleging that the Kaliningrad exclave is threatened by NATO; the US plans to take over the Kaliningrad region and the aim of NATO’s exercise: prepare for the annexation of Russia’s Kaliningrad region.