In the 1990s, Poland and Ukraine's real GDP per capita were roughly on par with one another. Over the span of 20 years, Poland has become almost three times as wealthy and is now a hub for Europe's capital market. On this episode of The Eastern Front, Giselle, Dalibor, and Iulia speak with Dr. Marek Dietl, CEO of the GPW Warsaw Stock Exchange and economic advisor to Polish president Andrzej Duda, to discuss the rapid evolvement of Poland's economy. What was the catalyst behind Poland's economic takeoff? Might it now be threatened by the Russia-Ukraine war and decreased EU funding? To what extent has Poland managed to successfully decouple itself from the Russian economy? Given the amount of money Poland is putting towards military expansion, are there any talks about building a trans-Atlantic defense industry?

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