Echoes from Georgia

After shots were fired near a presidential motorcade during Lech Kaczyński's visit to Georgia last month, the Polish press started to ask questions. Why had there been a sudden change of schedule? Why did the Polish and Georgian presidents travel near a Russian station on the South Ossetian border? Why was the press vehicle ordered to the front of the motorcade just minutes before shots were heard? And why was the Polish security force not in place?

Presidents Lech Kaczyński and Mikheil Saakashvili described the incident as a Russian provocation. "I know that they were Russians. I recognized their yelling," said President Kaczyński, describing details of the incident during a press conference in Tbilisi. The Russian Foreign and Defence ministries officially denied any involvement in the shooting.

The host of unanswered questions led to speculation that the entire incident was a publicity stunt contrived by the Georgian side. Dziennik, for example, wrote that the Polish Internal Security Agency (ABW) had not excluded this possibility. Representatives of the agency denied this and then issued a statement blaming the  president's security detail from the Government Protection Bureau (BOR) for being ill-prepared.

"The BOR officers were not informed that the presidents were going beyond Tbilisi, and were not able to act accordingly. At one point BOR officers were 'cut off' from Lech Kaczyński by Georgian security," said the statement.

"There is no doubt that the health and life of the Polish president were put in jeopardy," agreed Prime Minister Donald Tusk. Lt. Col. Krzysztof Olszowiec, a BOR officer and head of the presidential security detail, has been suspended pending an investigation.

After Olszowiec was suspended, the president, who is going to Japan this week, said that he would not accept any other head of security and didn't want a security detail at all. However, as the head of state, he is legally required to have security. Last Friday, the president gave in and accepted a new temporary head for his security detail.