War in Ukraine: Lech Walesa suggests “reducing” Russia to “less than 50 million inhabitants” – Le Figaro

By Le Figaro Posted 51 minutes ago, Updated 47 minutes ago The former President of Poland from 1990 to 1995 and founder of the Solidarnosc movement, during a pro-European Union demonstration in Gdansk in the north of Poland on October 10, 2021. MATEUSZ SLODKOWSKI / AFP For the former Polish president and founder of Solidarnosc, interviewed by LCI, world security would go through the organization of an “uprising of the peoples” who have been “annexed” by Russia . Former President of Poland and historic figure in the fight against the USSR, Lech Walesa urged the West to go further than the liberation of Ukraine, under Russian military offensive since the end of February. In an exceptional interview with LCI on Friday, the founder of the Solidarnosc movement also called for “liberating Russia”. “Even if Ukraine will win this war, in five years we will have the same thing, in ten years we will see another Putin arise,” he warned. To avoid this scenario, “today, we must force this change of political system, or else, organize an uprising of the peoples” Russian, then suggests the former Polish president. Unless there is a complete change of political regime in Moscow, world security could therefore only be ensured by the dismemberment of present-day Russia, which in his eyes has remained imperial: “There are 60 peoples who have been annexed like the Ukrainians today. today. It would be necessary to raise these peoples who have been annexed by Russia (…). Either change Russia’s political system or bring it back to a population of less than 50 million. The Russian Federation currently has 144 million inhabitants. Read alsoLech Walesa: “All of Europe must help Minsk in its fight for freedom” While he recognizes that the West has its own interests in expanding its influence and power, he stresses that it does so by a democratic, and therefore legitimate way: “We must understand that the West develops its power through NATO, through the EU, by expanding, but it is through a democratic way. Russia does it by violence”. For the former leader of Solidarnosc, the world would now be cut in two again: “There are now two systems: on the one hand, the democracies and NATO, which want to expand, but by democratic means, by soliciting the decisions of the peoples, on the other Russia and China, who have recourse to the old methods of annexation.” Lech Walesa remains severe with regard to the West, which he considers to have been misguided in believing that Russia would become inoffensive. According to him, this mistake dates back to the Gorbachev years: “We should have brought down Russia. But Gorbachev was too smart for that. We said to ourselves at the time: ‘There was Stalin, Brezhnev, but Gorbachev, he’s nice.’ So we left them alone. Russia waited for troubled times and now they want to carry on like they have for centuries and keep annexing peoples into their empire. It was our mistake at the time. I wanted to do otherwise, but they wouldn’t let me. »