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69-505: Upper parties of Bieszczady are covered with montane meadows called polonyna (Ukrainian: полонина ; Polish: połonina ; Slovak: polonina ). The term Bieszczady has been introduced into English from Polish. In Poland, the term usually refers (in the narrower sense) to the Polish part of the Bieszczady region, while in the wider sense it can also refer to the entire region. In Slovakia,

138-697: A Member of the International Advisory Council (IAC) to Uzbekistan. In 2020, he assumed the position of Chair of the Eastern Europe and Central Asia Commission on Drugs. In a plea agreement filed in United States Federal court on 14 September 2018, former Donald Trump campaign chair Paul Manafort admitted to organizing a group of former European heads of state to illegally lobby, starting in 2011, on behalf of then-Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych . The plea agreement describes one of

207-456: A coalition with the rightist government of Jerzy Buzek with few major conflicts and on several occasions, he stood against movements of the SLD government of Leszek Miller . At one moment, support for Kwaśniewski reached as high as 80% in popularity polls; most of the time it was over 50%. In 1997, the Polish newspaper Zycie reported that Kwaśniewski had met former KGB officer Vladimir Alganov at

276-736: A course on political leadership, convened by Professor Carol Lancaster, with former Spanish Prime Minister José María Aznar . He is also Chairman of the supervisory board of the International Centre for Policy Studies in Kyiv, Ukraine and a member of the International Honorary Council of the European Academy of Diplomacy. In 2008 Aleksander Kwaśniewski became Chairman of the European Council on Tolerance and Reconciliation ,

345-575: A few conifer species. Pine and juniper are typical trees found in Mediterranean montane forests. The broadleaf trees show more variety and are often evergreen, e.g. evergreen oak . This type of forest is found in the Mediterranean Basin , North Africa , Mexico and the southwestern US , Iran , Pakistan and Afghanistan . In the tropics, montane forests can consist of broadleaf forest in addition to coniferous forest . One example of

414-456: A new document had been a criticism often levelled at Wałęsa. Kwaśniewski actively campaigned for its approval in the subsequent referendum, and he signed it into law on 16 July 1997. He took an active part in the efforts to secure Polish membership of NATO . He headed Poland's delegation at the 1997 Madrid summit, where Poland, the Czech Republic , and Hungary were promised membership; and

483-539: A not-for-profit organization established to monitor tolerance in Europe, prepare practical recommendations to governments and international organisations on improving interreligious and interethnic relations on the continent. The organization is co-chaired by European Jewish Fund President Viatcheslav Moshe Kantor . Since June 2012 Kwaśniewski and Pat Cox lead a European Parliament monitoring mission in Ukraine to monitor

552-580: A round in the 2014 International Hill Climb Cup . Montane meadows Montane ecosystems are found on the slopes of mountains . The alpine climate in these regions strongly affects the ecosystem because temperatures fall as elevation increases , causing the ecosystem to stratify. This stratification is a crucial factor in shaping plant community, biodiversity, metabolic processes and ecosystem dynamics for montane ecosystems. Dense montane forests are common at moderate elevations, due to moderate temperatures and high rainfall. At higher elevations,

621-455: A secret CIA black site in Poland, but that activities were to be carried out in accordance to Polish law. He said that a U.S. draft memorandum had stated that "people held in Poland are to be treated as prisoners of war and will be afforded all the rights they are entitled to", but due to time constraints, the U.S. had not signed the memorandum. The U.S. had conducted activities in great secrecy at

690-555: A single round. Following the 11 September 2001 attacks , Kwaśniewski organized an international conference in Warsaw, with the participation of leaders from Central, Eastern and South-Eastern Europe to strengthen regional activities in fighting international terrorism. Under Kwaśniewski's leadership, Poland became a strong ally of the United States in the War on Terror and contributed troops in

759-595: A special statement, demanded from politicians by Polish law, and a court confirmed his statement. On 7 March 2006, Kwaśniewski was appointed Distinguished Scholar in the Practice of Global Leadership at Georgetown University , where he teaches students in the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service about contemporary European politics, the trans-Atlantic relationship, and democratization in Central and Eastern Europe. He also teaches

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828-402: A tropical montane forest is a cloud forest , which gains its moisture from clouds and fog. Cloud forests often exhibit an abundance of mosses covering the ground and vegetation, in which case they are also referred to as mossy forests. Mossy forests usually develop on the saddles of mountains, where moisture introduced by settling clouds is more effectively retained. Depending on latitude,

897-467: Is a Polish politician and journalist. He served as the president of Poland from 1995 to 2005. His tenure as President was marked by modernization of Poland, rapid economic growth (Poland's GDP has doubled in ten years), the drafting of a new Polish Constitution (1997), and the accession of Poland to NATO (1999) and the European Union (2004). In 2004, he brokered a pro-democratic agreement during

966-518: Is called the tree line . The biotemperature of the subalpine zone is between 3 and 6 °C (37 and 43 °F). Above the tree line the ecosystem is called the alpine zone or alpine tundra , dominated by grasses and low-growing shrubs. The biotemperature of the alpine zone is between 1.5 and 3 °C (34.7 and 37.4 °F). Many different plant species live in the alpine environment, including perennial grasses , sedges , forbs , cushion plants , mosses , and lichens . Alpine plants must adapt to

1035-446: Is the mean temperature considering temperatures below 0 °C (32 °F) to be 0 °C (32 °F). Above the elevation of the montane forest, the trees thin out in the subalpine zone, become twisted krummholz , and eventually fail to grow. Therefore, montane forests often contain trees with twisted trunks. This phenomenon is observed due to the increase in the wind strength with the elevation. The elevation where trees fail to grow

1104-663: Is the presence of giant rosette plants from a variety of plant families, such as Lobelia ( Afrotropic ), Puya ( Neotropic ), Cyathea ( New Guinea ), and Argyroxiphium ( Hawaii ). Where conditions are drier, one finds montane grasslands, savannas, and woodlands, like the Ethiopian Highlands , and montane steppes , like the steppes of the Tibetan Plateau . Aleksander Kwa%C5%9Bniewski Aleksander Kwaśniewski ( Polish pronunciation: [alɛˈksandɛr kfaˈɕɲɛfskʲi] ; born 15 November 1954)

1173-715: The European Constitution . Thanks to his close relations with Leonid Kuchma , in late 2004 he became a mediator in a political conflict in Ukraine – the Orange Revolution , and according to some commentators, he played the major role in its peaceful solution. After the release of the Senate Intelligence Committee report on CIA torture in December 2014, Kwaśniewski admitted that he had agreed in 2003 to host

1242-541: The Hengduan Mountains adjoining Asia's Tibetan Plateau have been identified as the world's oldest continuous alpine ecosystem with a community of 3000 plant species, some of them continuously co-existing for 30 million years. Climates with biotemperatures below 1.5 °C (35 °F) tend to consist purely of rock and ice. Montane forests occur between the submontane zone and the subalpine zone . The elevation at which one habitat changes to another varies across

1311-581: The Iraq War , a move that was highly controversial in Poland and Europe. Poland was in charge of a sector of Iraq after the removal of Saddam Hussein . Polish membership of the European Union became a reality on 1 May 2004, during Kwaśniewski's second term. Both he and his wife Jolanta had campaigned for approval of the EU accession treaty in June 2003. He strongly supported including mention of Europe's Christian roots into

1380-703: The Orange Revolution in Ukraine. He was born in Białogard , attended the University of Gdańsk , and served as the Minister of Sport in the communist government during the 1980s. After the fall of Communism, he became a leader of the centre-left Social Democracy of the Republic of Poland , a successor to the former ruling Polish United Workers' Party , and a co-founder of the Democratic Left Alliance . Kwaśniewski

1449-641: The Pacific Northwest of North America, climate change may cause "potential reduced snowpack, higher levels of evapotranspiration, increased summer drought" which will negatively affect montane wetlands. Montane forests in Mediterranean climate are warm and dry except in winter, when they are relatively wet and mild. Montane forests located in Mediterranean climates, known as oro-Mediterranean, exhibit towering trees alongside high biomass. These forests are typically mixed conifer and broadleaf forests, with only

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1518-725: The Polish Olympic Committee (PKOL); he later served as PKOL president from 1988 to 1991. Running for the Sejm from the Warsaw constituency in 1991, he won the largest number of votes (148,533), although did not win an absolute majority. Kwaśniewski headed the parliamentary caucus of the Democratic Left Alliance in his first and second terms (1991–1995). He was a member of the Foreign Affairs Committee and chairman of

1587-639: The UNESCO East Carpathian Biosphere Reserve was created that encapsulates a large part of the area and continues into Slovakia and Ukraine. It comprises the Bieszczady National Park (Poland), Poloniny National Park (Slovakia) and the Uzhansky National Nature Park (Ukraine). Animals living in this reserve include, among others, black storks , brown bears , wolves and bison . The mountains were used as

1656-546: The University of Gdańsk , although he never graduated. He became politically active at this time, and joined the ruling Polish United Workers' Party (PZPR) in 1977, remaining a member until it was dissolved in 1990. An activist in the communist student movement until 1982, he held, among other positions, the chairmanship of the University Council of the Socialist Union of Polish Students (SZSP) from 1976 to 1977 and

1725-422: The climate becomes cooler , due to a decrease in atmospheric pressure and the adiabatic cooling of airmasses. In middle latitudes , the change in climate by moving up 100 meters on a mountain is roughly equivalent to moving 80 kilometers (45 miles or 0.75° of latitude ) towards the nearest pole. The characteristic flora and fauna in the mountains tend to strongly depend on elevation, because of

1794-584: The criminal cases against Yulia Tymoshenko , Yuriy Lutsenko and Valeriy Ivaschenko . Since 2011, Kwaśniewski has served on the Leadership Council for Concordia , a nonpartisan, nonprofit based in New York City focused on promoting effective public-private collaboration to create a more prosperous and sustainable future. Kwaśniewski was also involved with the EU talks with the Ukrainian government about

1863-442: The lee side of rocks and grow only as high as the rock provides wind protection. Further growth is more horizontal than vertical, and additional rooting may occur where branches contact the soil. Snow cover may protect krummholz trees during the winter, but branches higher than wind-shelters or snow cover are usually destroyed. Well-established krummholz trees may be several hundred to a thousand years old. Meadows may be found in

1932-487: The 2002 Riga Initiative, a forum for cooperation between Central European states, aimed towards further enlargement of NATO and the European Union. An advocate of regional cooperation in Central and Eastern Europe, Kwaśniewski hosted a summit of the region's leaders at Łańcut in 1996. Speaking out against the danger organized crime posed to the region, he submitted a draft of a convention on fighting organised crime to

2001-535: The Baltic sea resort Cetniewo in 1994. First Kwaśniewski denied ever meeting Alganov and filed a libel suit against the newspaper. Eventually, Kwaśniewski admitted that he had met Alganov on official occasions, but denied meeting him in Cetniewo. Kwaśniewski's greatest achievement was his ability to bring about a new Constitution of Poland to replace the modified Stalinist document then still in use. The failure to create

2070-453: The Bieszczady region is known as Beščady , while the Slovak part of the region is called Bukovec Mountains (Slovak: Bukovské vrchy ). In Ukraine, the Bieszczady region is known as Beshchady (Ukrainian: Бещади ), while various parts of the region often have two or more name variants (unstable terminology), usually containing the word Beščady in combination with some other terms. Historically,

2139-739: The Constitutional Committee of the National Assembly from November 1993 to November 1995. In an often bitter campaign, Kwaśniewski won the presidential election in 1995 , collecting 51.7 percent of votes in the run-off , against 48.3 percent for the incumbent, Lech Wałęsa , the former Solidarity leader. Kwaśniewski's campaign slogans were "Let's choose the future" ( Wybierzmy przyszłość ) and "A Poland for all" ( Wspólna Polska ). Political opponents disputed his victory and produced evidence to show that he had lied about his education in registration documents and public presentations. There

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2208-525: The PZPR was wound up, he became a founding member of the post-communist Social Democratic Party of the Republic of Poland (SdRP) from January to February 1990, and its first chairman until he assumed the presidency in December 1995. He was also one of the founding members of the coalition Democratic Left Alliance (SLD) in 1991. Kwaśniewski was an activist in the Student Sports Union from 1975 to 1979 and

2277-607: The Pleistocene offered smaller-area refugia from the glaciers. Montane forests in temperate climate occur in Europe (the Alps , Carpathians , and more ), in North America (e.g., Appalachians , Rocky Mountains , Cascade Range , and Sierra Nevada ), South America , New Zealand , and the Himalayas . Climate change is predicted to affect temperate montane forests. For example, in

2346-757: The Polish General Karol Świerczewski in Jabłonki by the Ukrainian Insurgent Army in 1947 was the direct cause of the replacement of the Boykos, the so-called Operation Vistula . The area was mostly uninhabited afterward. New Poles settled in the Bieszczady, joining the Poles living in the Bieszczady area before 1947, but the area became much less populated than before 1947. In 2002, then president Aleksander Kwaśniewski expressed regret for this operation. In 1991,

2415-495: The Polish plural y stem giving Bies + czady + y . Some folk stories connect the origin of the mountains to the demonic activity of the Biesy and Czady , while other folk stories tell of the mountains being populated with hordes of Biesy and Czady , hence the name. Another less probable possibility is the term being related to Middle Low German beshêt , beskēt , meaning watershed . Since there exist many variants of divisions of

2484-552: The UN in 1996. He was an active participant at meetings of regional leaders in Portorož in 1997, Levoča in 1998, and Lviv and Yalta in 1999. After a history of sometimes acrimonious relations with Lithuania , Kwaśniewski was a driving force behind the presidential summit in Vilnius in 1997, at which the two countries' presidents signed a treaty of friendship. Poland subsequently became one of

2553-502: The Washington summit, where on 26 February 1999, during the Kosovo conflict , which he supported, he signed the instruments ratifying Poland's membership of NATO. He also took an active part in promoting further enlargement of the alliance, speaking out in favor of membership for a further seven states and the open-door policy that leaves open the option of further members. He was an author of

2622-518: The association agreement with the EU that the Ukrainian parliament failed to ratify in November 2013. After the Maidan unrest had installed the transitional government under Yatsenyuk , who signed the EU association agreement for Ukraine in 2014, Kwaśniewski took up in a director's post in the gas company ″ Burisma Holdings Limited″ which owns licenses for the major Ukrainian gas fields. In 2019, he became

2691-427: The change in climate. This dependency causes life zones to form: bands of similar ecosystems at similar elevations. One of the typical life zones on mountains is the montane forest: at moderate elevations, the rainfall and temperate climate encourages dense forests to grow. Holdridge defines the climate of montane forest as having a biotemperature of between 6 and 12 °C (43 and 54 °F), where biotemperature

2760-453: The climate is harsher, with lower temperatures and higher winds, preventing the growth of trees and causing the plant community to transition to montane grasslands and shrublands or alpine tundra . Due to the unique climate conditions of montane ecosystems, they contain increased numbers of endemic species. Montane ecosystems also exhibit variation in ecosystem services , which include carbon storage and water supply. As elevation increases,

2829-457: The constitution did not allow parliamentary commissions to investigate the president, and there were no clear law opinions. The commission decided eventually not to summon Kwaśniewski. For a second time Kwaśniewski refused as a witness to face the commission investigating the privatization of Orlen petrol concern, in March 2005. He argued that the actions of commission members, being in opposition to

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2898-703: The cool, wet climate and abundant sunlight. The most extensive montane grasslands and shrublands occur in the Neotropical páramo of the Andes Mountains . This biome also occurs in the mountains of east and central Africa , Mount Kinabalu of Borneo , the highest elevations of the Western Ghats in South India and the Central Highlands of New Guinea . A unique feature of many wet tropical montane regions

2967-568: The future. Reduction in cloudiness may already be affecting the Monteverde cloud forest in Costa Rica . The subalpine zone is the biotic zone immediately below the tree line around the world. In tropical regions of Southeast Asia the tree line may be above 4,000 m (13,000 ft), whereas in Scotland it may be as low as 450 m (1,480 ft). Species that occur in this zone depend on

3036-458: The globe, particularly by latitude . The upper limit of montane forests, the tree line , is often marked by a change to hardier species that occur in less dense stands. For example, in the Sierra Nevada of California , the montane forest has dense stands of lodgepole pine and red fir , while the Sierra Nevada subalpine zone contains sparse stands of whitebark pine . The lower bound of

3105-405: The harsh alpine environment. Cushion plants , looking like ground-hugging clumps of moss, escape the strong winds blowing a few inches above them. Many flowering plants of the alpine tundra have dense hairs on stems and leaves to provide wind protection or red-colored pigments capable of converting the sun's light rays into heat. Some plants take two or more years to form flower buds, which survive

3174-476: The harsh conditions of the alpine environment, which include low temperatures, dryness, ultraviolet radiation, and a short growing season. Alpine plants display adaptations such as rosette structures, waxy surfaces, and hairy leaves. Because of the common characteristics of these zones, the World Wildlife Fund groups a set of related ecoregions into the " montane grassland and shrubland " biome. A region in

3243-472: The heads of state involved in this secret lobbying as a "former Polish President" who "was also a representative of the European Parliament with oversight responsibility for Ukraine." At least one press report claimed that Kwaśniewski was this former Polish President. Aleksander Kwaśniewski has been honored to date with the following decorations: In 1979, Kwaśniewski married lawyer Jolanta Konty in

3312-671: The invasion of the Hungarian tribes into the heart of the Great Moravian Empire around 899, the Lendians of the area declared their allegiance to the Hungarians. The region then became a site of contention between Poland, Kievan Rus and Hungary starting in at least the 9th century. This area was mentioned for the first time in 981, when Volodymyr the Great of Kievan Rus took the area over on

3381-630: The leftist government supported by him, were directed against him. He sought to undermine the commission by releasing considerable amounts of information to journalists while only belatedly making it available to the commission members. In 2007, the Institute of National Remembrance revealed that Kwaśniewski was registered during communist times as an agent "Alek" of the secret police, the Security Service ( Służba Bezpieczeństwa – SB), from 1983 to 1989. Kwaśniewski himself denied having been an agent in

3450-550: The location of the zone on the Earth; for example, Pinus mugo (scrub mountain pine) occurs in Europe , the snow gum is found in Australia, and the subalpine larch , mountain hemlock , and subalpine fir occur in western North America. Trees in the subalpine zone often become krummholz , that is, crooked wood, stunted and twisted in form. At tree line, tree seedlings may germinate on

3519-644: The lower limit of montane rainforests on large mountains is generally between 1,500 and 2,500 metres (4,900 and 8,200 ft) while the upper limit is usually from 2,400 to 3,300 metres (7,900 to 10,800 ft). Tropical montane forests might exhibit high sensitivity to climate change. Climate change may cause variation in temperature, precipitation and humidity, which will cause stress on tropical montane forests. The predicted upcoming impacts of climate change might significantly affect biodiversity loss and might result in change of species range and community dynamics. Global climate models predict reduced cloudiness in

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3588-841: The montane zone may be a "lower timberline" that separates the montane forest from drier steppe or desert region. Montane forests differ from lowland forests in the same area. The climate of montane forests is colder than lowland climate at the same latitude, so the montane forests often have species typical of higher-latitude lowland forests. Humans can disturb montane forests through forestry and agriculture . On isolated mountains, montane forests surrounded by treeless dry regions are typical " sky island " ecosystems. Montane forests in temperate climate are typically one of temperate coniferous forest or temperate broadleaf and mixed forest , forest types that are well known from Europe and northeastern North America . Montane forests outside Europe tend to be more species-rich, because Europe during

3657-426: The mountain ranges and names for the Eastern Beskids (and Ukrainian Carpathians in general), several divisions are given in the following: Division 1: Division 2: Division 3: In an old Ukrainian division, what is defined here as the Bieszczady in a wider sense corresponds to the western part of the Mid-Carpathian Depression and to the westernmost part of the Polonynian Beskids. Settled in prehistoric times,

3726-473: The pursuit of closer ties to the European Union and NATO . Kwaśniewski also continued the transition to a market economy and the privatization of state-owned enterprises, although with less energy than his predecessor. Hoping to be seen as "the president of all Poles", including his political opponents, he resigned from the SLD after the election. Every Polish president since then has renounced formal ties with their party upon taking office. Later, he formed

3795-431: The site . In December 2005, when his presidency was coming to an end, he granted clemency for a post-Communist deputy minister of Justice Zbigniew Sobotka, who had been sentenced for 3.5 years of prison for revealing a state secret (effectively, he warned gangsters about an operation against them). Kwaśniewski changed the prison sentence to probation . Another case of Kwaśniewski's controversial granting of pardons

3864-428: The south-eastern Poland region that is now Bieszczady was overrun in pre-Roman times by various tribes, including the Celts , Goths and Vandals ( Przeworsk culture and Puchov culture ). After the fall of the Roman Empire, of which most of south-eastern Poland was part (all parts below the San ), Hungarians and West Slavs invaded the area. The region subsequently became part of the Great Moravian state. Upon

3933-410: The strongest advocates of Lithuanian membership in NATO and the European Union and the strongest advocate of Ukraine in Europe. In 2000 he was re-elected in a single round, collecting 53.9 percent of the vote. His election campaign slogan was: "A home for all—Poland" ( Dom wszystkich—Polska ). To date, this is the only time since the end of Communism that a presidential election has been decided in

4002-418: The subalpine zone. Tuolumne Meadows in the Sierra Nevada of California , is an example of a subalpine meadow. Example subalpine zones around the world include the French Prealps in Europe, the Sierra Nevada and Rocky Mountain subalpine zones in North America, and subalpine forests in the eastern Himalaya , western Himalaya , and Hengduan mountains of Asia. Alpine grasslands and tundra lie above

4071-434: The terms Bieszczady / Beščady / Beshchady have been used for hundreds of years to describe the mountains separating the old Kingdom of Hungary from Poland . A Latin language source of 1269 refers to them as " Beschad Alpes Poloniae " (translated as: Bieszczady Mountains of Poland ). The Polish folk etymology holds the term Bieszczady to have stemmed from the terms Bies and Czad (possibly from Chort ) along with

4140-479: The tree line, in a world of intense radiation, wind, cold, snow, and ice. As a consequence, alpine vegetation is close to the ground and consists mainly of perennial grasses , sedges , and forbs . Annual plants are rare in this ecosystem and usually are only a few inches tall, with weak root systems. Other common plant life-forms include prostrate shrubs ; tussock -forming graminoids ; and cryptogams , such as bryophytes and lichens . Plants have adapted to

4209-663: The tundra is very fragile. Repeated footsteps often destroy tundra plants, leaving exposed soil to blow away, and recovery may take hundreds of years. Alpine meadows form where sediments from the weathering of rocks has produced soils well-developed enough to support grasses and sedges. Alpine grasslands are common enough around the world to be categorized as a biome by the World Wildlife Fund . The biome, called " Montane grasslands and shrublands ", often evolved as virtual islands, separated from other montane regions by warmer, lower elevation regions, and are frequently home to many distinctive and endemic plants which evolved in response to

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4278-477: The vice-chairmanship of the Gdańsk Voivodship Union from 1977 to 1979. Kwaśniewski was a member of the SZSP supreme authorities from 1977 to 1982. From November 1981 to February 1984 he was the editor-in-chief of the communist-controlled student weekly ITD , then editor-in-chief of the daily communist youth Sztandar Młodych from 1984 to 1985. He was a co-founder of the first computer-science periodical in Poland, Bajtek , in 1985. From 1985 to 1987, Kwaśniewski

4347-424: The way into Poland. In 1018 it returned to Poland, 1031 back to Rus, in 1340 Casimir III of Poland recovered it. Bieszczady was one of the strategically important areas of the Carpathian mountains bitterly contested in battles on the Eastern Front of World War I during the winter of 1914/1915. Up until 1947, about 75% of the population of the Polish part of the Bieszczadzkie Mountains was Boyko . The killing of

4416-452: The winter below the surface and then open and produce fruit with seeds in the few weeks of summer. Non-flowering lichens cling to rocks and soil. Their enclosed algal cells can photosynthesize at temperatures as low as −10 °C (14 °F), and the outer fungal layers can absorb more than their own weight in water. The adaptations for survival of drying winds and cold may make tundra vegetation seem very hardy, but in some respects

4485-489: Was Minister for Youth Affairs in the Zbigniew Messner government, and then Chairman of the Committee for Youth and Physical Culture till 1990. He joined the government of Mieczysław Rakowski , first as a Cabinet Minister and then as chairman of the government Social-Political Committee from October 1988 to September 1989. A participant in the Round-Table negotiations , he co-chaired the task group for trade-union pluralism with Tadeusz Mazowiecki and Romuald Sosnowski. As

4554-505: Was also some mystery over his graduation from university. A law court confirmed that Kwaśniewski had lied about his record—and this did not come to light until after the election—but did not penalise him for it. Kwaśniewski took the presidential oath of office on 23 December 1995. Later the same day, he was sworn in as Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces at the Warszawa First Fighter Wing, in Mińsk Mazowiecki . His political course resembled that of Wałęsa's in several key respects, such as

4623-491: Was elected to the presidency in 1995, defeating the incumbent, Lech Wałęsa . He was re-elected to a second and final term as President in 2000 in a decisive first-round victory. In line with a constitutional limit of two terms, his second term ended on 23 December 2005. According to a 2020 poll conducted by Rzeczpospolita , Kwaśniewski was considered the best president in post-1989 history of Poland. From 1973 to 1977, Kwaśniewski studied Transport Economics and Foreign Trade at

4692-455: Was eventually arrested in 1998 in Switzerland. After Vogel's extradition to Poland, in 1999 Kwaśniewski initiated the procedure of granting him amnesty. In December 2005 (a few days before leaving his office) Kwaśniewski pardoned Vogel despite the negative opinion of the procurer. Kwaśniewski refused in 2003 to face a special parliamentary commission, which was set up to reveal all circumstances linked with Rywingate . Kwaśniewski argued, that

4761-556: Was the Peter Vogel case. The story goes back to 1971 when Piotr Filipczyński, a.k.a. Peter Vogel was sentenced to 25 years in jail for a brutal murder (shortened to 15 years in 1979). Surprisingly enough, in 1983 (during martial law in Poland ) he was granted a passport and allowed to leave the country. He returned in 1990 soon earning the nickname "the accountant of the Left" as a former Swiss banker who took care of more than thirty accounts of Polish social democrats . Despite an arrest warrant issued in 1987, Vogel moved freely in Poland and

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