Biden's unlikely embrace of Poland

[pnwmom]

https://www.axios.com/bidens-unlikely-embrace-of-poland-7a47d7df-6b91-4556-95ff-f2ee5e06f283.html

President Biden's visit to Poland on Friday will punctuate the country's unlikely turn from illiberal agitator to symbol of European solidarity, putting on hold U.S. and EU concerns about Warsaw's democratic backsliding to celebrate its embrace of over 2 million Ukrainian refugees.

The big picture: In October 2020, Biden described Poland in the same breath as Hungary and Belarus while warning about the "rise of totalitarian regimes." Today, Poland is leading the West in calling for maximalist support for Ukraine as its democracy threatens to be crushed by Vladimir Putin.

SNIP

Flash forward: The EU has for months been withholding billions of dollars in pandemic recovery funds over Poland's crackdown on judicial independence, prompting the leader of PiS to accuse Germany in December of seeking to turn the EU into a "German fourth reich."

The EU's judicial dispute with Poland hasn't ended, but European leaders are searching for a resolution that would unlock the funds and help Warsaw manage the flood of Ukrainian refugees entering the country.

[Ford_Prefect]

1. Constructive Engagement?

[Bernardo de La Paz]

2. You do what you need to do when there are bigger issues, like free nations versus brutal despots. nt

[left-of-center2012]

3. "The enemy of my enemy is my friend" n/t