POLAND:ONE IN two Poles fears that, following the Georgia crisis, their country will be the target of a Russian attack, a new opinion poll has found.
The poll, in Wprostnews magazine, comes ahead of tomorrow's visit by US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice to Warsaw, where she will sign a deal to station part of Washington's new missile defence system in northern Poland.
After a preliminary agreement was signed last week, leading Kremlin defence officials said that co-hosting the missile base would make Poland a Russian military target with "100 per cent certainty".
The poll is featured in this week's Wprost, which portrays the Russian prime minister as "Adolf Putin" with a side parting and Hitler-style toothbrush moustache.
Half of the Poles quizzed by the Pentor agency said they were afraid of a Russian attack, with 38 per cent saying they were not afraid. Some 12 per cent expressed no opinion.
The results of the poll reflected traditional Polish suspicions and historical fears of its larger eastern neighbour: some 40 per cent of respondents said they considered Russia to be Poland's greatest enemy.
One in two of those polled told the pollsters said they thought Russian leaders should have to answer to the International Court of Justice for war crimes against humanity in Chechnya and Georgia.
Some analysts suggest the poll was an emotional reaction to the Georgia conflict, which had revived old cold war fears as a Soviet satellite.
"What most Poles really expect is a different kind of unfriendly behaviour from Russia, such as shutting down energy sources or gas pipelines," said Jacek Zakowski, columnist with the Politykanews weekly.
Nevertheless, Poles have watched developments in Georgia with unease, particularly reports that Russia has fired SS-21 rockets during the conflict.
These are the kind of rockets Moscow has vowed to train on Poland from its base in Kaliningrad if Warsaw goes ahead with the missile shield.
Even after nearly a decade in Nato, Poles remain nervous about the alliance's guarantee that an attack on one member is considered an attack on all.
"Nato guarantees are not emotionally accepted by most older, middle-aged and even some younger people," said Maria Wagrowska, head of the Transatlantic Programme at the Centre for International Relations in Warsaw.
"Poles still recall the situation from 1939 when Poland was attacked despite British and French guarantees."
Adding to Polish nervousness, she added, was what Warsaw saw as a passive reaction in western Europe and the US to Russia's suspension last year of the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe.
Citing the US missile shield, former Russian president Vladimir Putin imposed a moratorium last year on the 1992 treaty that set lower ceilings for armaments and troop numbers.
"People say it's an old treaty dealing with the post-cold war situation, but for Poland it was the second pillar of our security strategy," Ms Wagrowska said.
"Now no one knows what will happen to this treaty in the future."