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Poland Wary of Pipeline Deal

Poland?s nationalist government compared a German-Russian pipeline deal to a pre-World War II Nazi-Soviet non-aggression pact in a verbal assault against the country?s two neighbors. Polish Defense Minister Radek Sikorski chastised German Chancellor Angela Merkel for refusing to reverse plans for the project - which were agreed by her predecessor, Gerhard Schroeder. Mr. Schroeder, for his part, has accepted work with a Russian gas firm connected to pipeline construction.

Russia`s state-run energy giant Gazprom, and German companies BASF and E.ON, agreed in September to build the 740-mile natural gas pipeline. The pipeline will cut through the Baltic Sea and thereby bypass Polish territory. Sikorski says the issue was raised with Merkel by the Polish President, Lech Kaczyinski, during a recent visit to Germany. "We asked. She refused."

"Poland has a particular sensitivity to corridors and deals above our head. That was the Locarno tradition, that was the Molotov-Ribbentrop tradition. That was the 20th century. We don`t want any repetition of that," Sikorsi added. Chancellor Merkel took part in a business forum in Russian Siberia last week, where the Russian Federation`s president, Vladmir Putin, shrugged off concerns about Russia`s political use of its energy.