Poland opens a propaganda-heavy canal

Where the cool Baltic waves once lapped a remote forested sandbank, the Vistula Spit, Poland’s government has created a megaproject to outwit Russia. “This is the last place in Poland which was constantly subject to interference,” said Marek Grobarczyk, the deputy infrastructure minister. With pomp and pageantry, this weekend the government will unveil a canal linking the Vistula Lagoon, a shallow 90km-long reservoir in north-eastern Poland, to the Baltic Sea. The 1.3km artificial waterway will allow ships to bypass a Russian-controlled strait, which has on occasion been shut off.