The words of Angela Merkel, who revisited the 2021 NATO-Putin summit in a recent interview, have stirred significant controversy. “It’s worth recalling who in Poland supported this lady’s policy, who benefited from it, and who wanted Russia to be part of NATO. History is the best teacher. That’s why it’s worth recalling and worth remembering,” wrote the Head of the Presidential Cabinet, Paweł Szefernaker, on social media.
In an interview with the niche Hungarian online outlet Partizan, Angela Merkel blamed Poland and the Baltic states for the breakdown of diplomatic relations between Russia and the EU, and thus indirectly for Russia’s full-scale aggression against Ukraine that followed several months later.
The former German chancellor’s exact words were: “In June 2021, I sensed that Putin no longer took the Minsk agreement seriously, which is why I proposed a new format through which the EU could speak directly with him. Some did not support this decision. These were primarily the Baltic countries, but Poland was also against it. In any case, it didn’t happen. Then I left office, and that’s when Putin’s aggression began.“
The German tabloid Bild headlined Merkel’s remarks with the striking title: “Merkel blames Poland for Putin’s war.” That interpretation of her words has also taken hold in Poland.
Szefernaker: “Today we know who supported the Russian dictator“
Paweł Szefernaker, the Head of the Presidential Cabinet of Karol Nawrocki, responded to the former German chancellor’s words on social media. “Nord Stream 2 was a financial Eldorado for Vladimir Putin and a lifeline for the German economy,” reads the opening of his post published on x.com.
In May 2025, the German daily Süddeutsche Zeitung wrote plainly: “The German government supported this project, but no one was supposed to find out about it.”
“Today we already know who truly strengthened the Russian dictator. And it was neither Poland nor the Baltic states,” Szefernaker wrote.
He added: “Financing for the gas pipeline amounting to EUR 9.5 billion was guaranteed 50% by ENGIE SA, OMV AG, Royal Dutch Shell plc, Uniper SE, and Wintershall Dea GmbH. Nord Stream 2 was built when Donald Tusk was President of the European Council. Rafał Trzaskowski called it a ‘business project.’“
Szefernaker also recalled the timeless words of the late President of Poland, Lech Kaczyński. “When ‘gas dealings’ were being made with Moscow, the President of the Republic of Poland, the late Lech Kaczyński, warned against an imperialism that knows no borders and recognizes no rules: ‘And we, too, know perfectly well that today it’s Georgia, tomorrow Ukraine, the day after tomorrow the Baltic states, and later perhaps it will be my country’s turn – Poland!’” he wrote.
That’s why – as Szefernaker continued – “it’s worth, after Chancellor Merkel’s interview, recalling these words.“
“It’s also worth recalling who in Poland supported this lady’s policy, who benefited from it, and who wanted Russia to be part of NATO. History is the best teacher. That’s why it’s worth recalling and worth remembering,” he added.