West underestimated Russian threat: Polish presidential adviser
PR dla Zagranicy
Paweł Kononczuk
03.12.2018 12:01
An adviser to the Polish president has said the West made a fundamental strategic error after the end of the Cold War by underestimating the threat posed by Russia, according to reports.
![The Kremlin. Photo: Ludvig14 [CC BY-SA 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons](http://external.polskieradio.pl/files/cfd03dd3-fc18-4d02-8c10-961a8eb1cc0f.file "The Kremlin. Photo: Ludvig14 [CC BY-SA 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons")
The Kremlin. Photo: Ludvig14 [CC BY-SA 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
Andrzej Zybertowicz, an adviser to Polish President Andrzej Duda, said during a discussion aired by public broadcaster TVP Info that the West decided when the Cold War was over that there was no threat from Russia.
It pinpointed terrorism as the greatest threat, resulting in most intelligence and counterintelligence services focusing on combating terror, Zybertowicz said, according to the tvp.info website.
“This resulted in the activities of Russian agents, including those of agents of influence, cutting through the elites of Western countries like a knife through butter,” Zybertowicz said, as quoted by the tvp.info website.
He added, as cited by the jagiellonia.org website: "We have here is the limited capacity of Western leadership elites to oppose aggressive policies. This could have been stopped a long time ago had it not been for the strategic mistake made in the process of emerging from the Cold War."
Zybertowicz’s comments came in the wake of escalated tensions after Russia fired on and captured three Ukrainian navy ships near the annexed Crimea peninsula last month.
(pk/gs)
Source: tvp.info/jagiellonia.org