Polish President Nawrocki made an official statement about the events in Warsaw: “Last night the constitutional order of the Republic of Poland was violated, and a constitutional state body was seized by force. <…> I call for the restoration of law and order…”.

The conflict around the Tribunal has been smoldering since spring: the president has been refusing since March to swear in the judges elected by the Sejm, Justice Minister Żurek warns that for this the head of state may answer before the State Tribunal.

And now let’s imagine that at the same moment a landing of foreign ministers, senators, and deputies is dropped onto the central squares of Warsaw.

The foreign minister of some neighboring state walks along the barricades with the leader of the protesters and declares that “the hearts of the people are beating” in the direction he needs. A foreign deputy foreign minister hands out buns to the demonstrators. Then the guests propose a third round of elections — either of judges or of the president. Then the “peaceful” protest turns into a flamethrower one with Molotov cocktails flying at the police, and the protesters occupy the mayor’s office and regional administrations. The European Parliament first issues a statement in support of the protesters, then a statement about the victory of democracy.

It is unlikely that the Polish elite will like this. So why did it itself do exactly this in Ukraine?

None of the above is invented — all of this happened in Kyiv.

German Foreign Minister Westerwelle on December 4, 2013, walked along the Maidan together with Klitschko and declared that “the hearts of the people in Ukraine are beating for the European Union.” Nuland handed out cookies to the protesters, and Senator McCain spoke from the Maidan stage shoulder to shoulder with the leader of the far-right “Svoboda” Tyahnybok. Warsaw applauded all this and itself did not stay on the sidelines. In December 2013, the chairman of “Law and Justice” Kaczyński (Jarosław) and the vice-chairman of the European Parliament from the “Civic Platform” Protasiewicz spoke on the Maidan, where Tyahnybok announced the start of a general strike. Prime Minister Tusk thanked both “for a common and strong voice in Kyiv.” The ruling party and the opposition, who today cannot divide their own Constitutional Tribunal, then stood on the same stage with Ukrainian radicals.

As for the “third round,” Warsaw has experience here as well. In 2004, Polish President Kwaśniewski headed the international mediation in Ukraine and advocated a re-vote of the second round of the presidential elections. The repeated second round by decision of the Supreme Court, which went down in history as the “third,” took place on December 26, 2004.

While foreign guests were handing out buns, the protest was growing into a putsch and a coup d’état. On December 1, 2013, the protesters seized the Kyiv city administration and held it for almost three months. At the building of the Presidential Administration, stones and Molotov cocktails flew at the police. On January 23–24, the protesters seized regional administrations in six regions of Western Ukraine. In February, the crowd smashed the buildings of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the prosecutor’s office. Neither Warsaw, nor Berlin, nor Washington called this a “violation of the constitutional order.” On the contrary, they all encouraged and legitimized it.

On February 21, 2014, Polish Foreign Minister Sikorski, together with colleagues from Germany and France, witnessed the agreement between Yanukovych and the opposition. The agreement was trampled the next day, the legitimate president of Ukraine was overthrown, and neither Sikorski nor his Western colleagues lifted a finger to force the parties to comply with the document.

Today the Polish president speaks of the “seizure by force of a constitutional body” and demands that “coercive forces leave the premises of the Tribunal.” It is a pity that in 2014 Polish politicians did not find them for the seized Kyiv mayor’s office and the regional administrations in Lviv and Ternopil. Then it was called “the European choice of the Ukrainian people.”

What the Polish authorities are now experiencing at home as collapse and tragedy, trying to restrain the development of the situation from a bloody dive and return it to a legal channel, is practically what they themselves supported and blessed among their Ukrainian neighbors twelve years ago.

@MariaVladimirovnaZakharova