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'Imperial Revanchism': Military Parade Helps Poland Hide Failure of Economic Reforms - Analyst

© AP Photo / Czarek SokolowskiUS-made Abrams tanks purchased by Poland take part in a massive military parade to celebrate the Polish Army Day in Warsaw. August 15, 2023.
US-made Abrams tanks purchased by Poland take part in a massive military parade to celebrate the Polish Army Day in Warsaw. August 15, 2023. - Sputnik International, 1920, 15.08.2023
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The Polish government has apparently pulled out all the stops while holding a massive military parade in Warsaw on August 15 to mark the country’s Army Day.
Several hundred Polish servicemen and dozens of domestic and US-made armored vehicles and weapon systems – including Abrams main battle tanks, HIMARS multiple rocket launch systems and South Korean K9 self-propelled howitzers – were involved in what a seems to have become the largest military parade Poland held in decades.
This event took place as Poland continues to help prolong the Ukrainian conflict by supplying arms to the regime in Kiev and masses its troops on its neighbors’ borders.
Commenting on this development, Dr. Marco Marsili, a researcher at Cà Foscari University of Venice and associate fellow at the Center for Strategic Research, suggested that this parade is “a flame of imperial revanchism,” a callback to the times when the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth was one of the great powers in Europe.
“This kind of strategy, which aims to compact the Poles in the name of the national pride, a common sense of belonging to the 'glorious' Motherland, is used to hide the failures of a government,” Dr. Marsili told Sputnik. “Indeed, the Polish government failed to adopt the economic reforms that are necessary to enter the Eurozone.”
According to Marsili, Poland’s eagerness to deepen its military cooperation with the United States, rather than to pursue the idea of “strategic autonomy” for Europe proposed by France, is largely based on Warsaw’s desire to get access to US weaponry.
 A wounded Ukrainian soldier. File photo - Sputnik International, 1920, 10.08.2023
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The technologically advanced US weapons, Marsili explained, can only be exported and made available to “friendly countries” under the US Congress’ authorization upon request from the White House.
“Poland is trying to emerge as a regional power between the Visegrád nations and, larger, between the European Union,” he suggested. “I think that Warsaw is parroting the foreign policy of Turkiye or Azerbaijan, just to mention two examples, which are playing at different tables at the same time to get the most profit - a kind of 'third position' that can hardly last long.”
Marsili also warned that Poland, which has been investing heavily in its armed forces in recent years, has not forgotten about the mass murder of Polish civilians by “Ukrainian ultranationalists” in Eastern Galicia and Volhynia during World War II.
“The Poles are mindful of this recent and painful slaughter; they will not forget it easily, and they will try to make the Ukrainians accountable, some way. Nationalism never sleeps forever; at some point of history, it wakes up and calls for revenge,” he mused.
Last week, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu suggested that Poland, which currently seeks to build “the most powerful army” in Europe, may attempt a military occupation of western Ukraine.
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