Word: polishing
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...years, "lustration" has applied to the efforts of some historians in old Soviet-bloc countries to expose former communist collaborators. The word derives from the Latin for purification but, as the dramatic defenestration of two high-ranking Polish priests over charges they cooperated with communist police has demonstrated, it's a messy business...
...messiness looks likely to continue. Until recently, the Polish Catholic Church had remained immune from scrutiny, but that taboo has crumbled in recent weeks as anticommunist newspapers began printing accusations about Warsaw Archbishop Stanislaw Wielgus and, later, a senior Cracow priest, Janusz Bielanski. A new report in a right-wing daily lists the pseudonyms of 12 bishops allegedly recruited by the secret police in the late 1970s...
...that as a directive to tap into the Russian oil that is being pumped to Poland and Germany through Belarus. Transneft, Russia's state-owned transporting company, said today that Belarus started siphoning off Russia's oil on Jan. 6 - diverting 79,000 tons in two days. Early Monday, Polish officials said that Belarus blocked the Russian Druzhba ("Friendship") oil pipeline that carries oil to Poland and Germany. Russia then closed the pipeline to prevent more Belarussian theft. "Now there is a threat to the fulfillment of international contracts between Russian companies and companies in Western Europe and Eastern Europe...
...transit." Germany depends on the pipeline for one-fifth of its oil imports. Poland receives 50% of its oil from Russia and most of it comes through the pipeline. Warsaw, however, says it has enough oil for 80 days and, if needed, can receive shipments through Baltic ports. Polish newspapers have started calling the controversy "The Russia-Belarus...
...Poland is among ultra-right parties staunchly opposed to communism. The newspapers that leaked the stories about Wielgus's collaboration, such as the weekly Gazeta Polska, are all on the far right of the political spectrum. Wielgus's case may lead to fresh accusations against other members of the Polish church. The Vatican has hinted that new revelations may be coming and a new book about collaborating priests is due out in Poland in March...