POLAND/LITHUANIA:UPDATE: Bad Blood Between Neighbors Heating-Up.

REUTERS/ By Gabriela Baczynska /
   Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski (pictured) has bluntly criticized Lithuania before the EU saying it was failing to live up to its commitments to ethnic Poles or to Polish investors.
    Warsaw is distressed that Vilnius won't address treatment of the 6-7% Polish minority there and a Polish-owned refinery in Lithuania.
    "Poland was a strong supporter of Lithuania's EU and NATO bids and continued to be a loyal partner ever since. But we are not getting reciprocal treatment," said analyst Eugeniusz Smolar.
   28 OCT:      Lithuania has responded. On the radio, Lithuanian Prime Minister Andrius Kubilius called Sikorski's criticisms “hurtful” and “unfounded” accusations.
     FOR MORE,  SEE : http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-10-28/lithuania-says-poland-making-hurtful-accusations-as-ethnic-row-escalates.html

POLAND: Wary Of The New Nord Stream Gas Pipeline.

GLOBAL POST/ By Tom Hundley...GP's New Poland correspondent?/

Polish paranoia rears its head...again. Is it justified?

The construction of a new $11 billion underwater natural gas pipeline called the Nord Stream from Russia’s Siberian gas fields to Germany’s Baltic coast has been labelled “the Molotov-Ribbentrop pipeline,” by Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski, referring to the infamous Nazi/Soviet pact to divy-up Poland on the eve of World War II. Says expert Dominik Smyrgala, "If Gazprom were a normal Western company, interested in profits and building customer relations, the situation would not be so drastic, but as we have seen, Gazprom is not this kind of company; it is better understood as a tool of foreign policy for the Russian Federation."

POLAND: Russia Paranoia Dashed; Foreign Minister Wife's Car Was Not Sabotaged.

WASHINGTON POST BLOG/ Anne Applebaum/
"Some of you may be deeply disappointed to hear this, but let me begin by reassuring all of my readers that no, my car did not blow up last weekend. I’m afraid it simply isn’t true that the Russian mafia are out to get me either. I know it would have been more fun — and for some of you much more satisfying — but alas, I was never under attack at all."

Anger In France And Poland Over Roman Polanski Arrest.

REUTERS/
France officals called on Switzerland to free Roman Polanski, the 76-year-old film directorand not extradite him to the United States. Polanski faces charges of having sex with a girl of 13 in 1977 in the USA.
Polanski was to receive a prize for his life's work at the Zurich Film Festival on Sunday, but was arrested on a 1978 U.S. arrest warrant after arriving in Switzerland on Saturday.
Polanski's ties with Poland are still strong and Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski said he might appeal directly to the United States over the case.
"I am considering approaching the American authorities over the possibility of the U.S. president proclaiming an act of clemency which would settle the matter once and for all," Sikorski said.

U.S. Paying Less Attention To Poland, Says Minister.

XINHUA.
The absence of major U.S. leader at the World War Two anniversary ceremony in Gdansk was "a lesson in realism" for Poland said Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski.
"From the U.S. point of view, everything in Poland is going well, and they simply don't share our sensitivity on these matters, and this is something we must be aware of in our politics," Sikorski is reported to have said.