ABSTRACT
The question of energy security has been high on the Polish political agenda since the early 1990s. Traditionally, a dominant issue has been the country's direct dependency on Russian oil and gas supplies and on the subsequent concern that the Russian state will abuse its position to meddle with Polish political and economic affairs. This chapter argues that the Russian threat, as technocrats have also pointed out, has been overstated, however, geopolitical considerations are not chiefly responsible for the fact that energy security persistently remained high on the national agenda. It then asserts that debates concerning Poland's energy security should be analysed in the context of transition politics. Both the technocratic and geopolitical explanations miss an important dimension that the study of the political struggles and scandals brings to the forefront. The rapprochement with the Russians was facilitated mainly by the failure of Polish policy.
