Radio commentator claims Polish officials knew about Yamal cable

A well-known radio commentator, Andrzej Bober, during his program on state-owned radio station "Jedynka" revealed a document that he claimed serves as proof that Polish officials have known of the commercial use of the fiber-optic cable running along the Yamal pipeline since April 1995. The document, Bober said, was a draft contract written by PPG Gazprojekt and sent to the Polish government's Central Planning Office (CUP) and Environment Protection Ministry (MOO), among others. Bober claimed it contained a provision that explicitly stated that the cable would be used commercially. Meanwhile, yesterday, Telecoms Minister and chief of the governmental team investigating the legality of the fiber-optic cable, Tomasz Szyszko, said Polish interests were not taken into account. Szyszko said, "PolGazTelekom was created and tried to take over telecoms infrastructure from EuRoPol Gaz. The government should demand PolGazTelekom to be closed". The Telecoms Ministry wants to amend Poland's telecoms law to increase supervision over the exploitation of international telecoms networks. "This is crucial for our country's safety and defense capabilities," said Minister Szyszko. (Gazeta Wyborcza, 6-7 Jan., pp. 1, 18; 8 Jan., pp. 1, 18)