In the spotlight: Radosław Sikorski

Although many claim the Minister used too harsh words, many Poles say the Russo-German agreement was made over Poland's head and is a threat to the country's independence.

Despite his young age, Sikorski knows much about a lack of independence and foreign oppression. After heading a strike at his high-school in Bydgoszcz in 1981, following the introduction of Martial Law in Poland, he became a political refugee in the UK at the age of 18. In Britain he attended Oxford University studying philosophy, political science and economy and worked as a war correspondent in Afghanistan and Angola for The Observer and The Spectator.

From his spell in Afghanistan comes the acclaimed book Dust of the Saints -A journey to Herat in the Time of War, and his World Press Photo winning images. After 1989, Sikorski, now no longer a refugee, worked as Warsaw correspondent for The Sunday Telegraph and was Rupert Murdoch's adviser on investments in Poland. He later got into politics and in 1992 at the age of 29 became the Deputy Minister of Defense.

Between 1998-2001 Sikorski was the Undersecretary of State in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs responsible for relations with the Polish diaspora. He was also a member of the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think-tank, where he was the executive director of the New Atlantic Initiative.