LEADERS of Poland's ruling coalition met yesterday to pick a successor to Mr Jozef Oleksy, the former prime minister who resigned on Wednesday amid charges that he once spied for Moscow.
Members of the coalition, made up of the former communist Democratic Left Alliance (SLD) and Polish Peasant Party (PPP), discussed the formation of a new government as well as the question of a successor for Mr Oleksy.
The resignation marks a turning point for Poland as it struggles with conflicting ideologies. The decision has split Polish opinion either one of the country's most powerful politicians passed state secrets to Moscow through KGB agents a charge he strongly denies or Poland's secret services and the interior minister himself have deliberately set out to oust him.
A third theory, that Moscow provoked the crisis, has been rejected by many Polish politicians. Yesterday, however, the former president, Mr Lech Walesa, accused Moscow of staging the spy row in an attempt to impede Poland's return to the western fold.
Mr Walesa said in an interview the controversy showed Russia wanted "to reintegrate Poland into its structures". He called on the west to increase its aid to Poland and quickly accept the former Warsaw Pact state as a full member of Nato.
"The west must understand that it will lose a market of 40 million people if Russia manages to slow the development of the Polish economy," he said.
In Moscow, the deputy Foreign Minister, Mr Sergei Krylov, said he hoped the controversy would not harm Russia's relations with Poland.
"Oleksy's resignation is a purely Polish affair," he added, reiterating Moscow's assertion that according to the Russian secret services Mr Oleksy had never worked for them.
Mr Oleksy insists he is the victim of a dirty tricks campaign and said his decision to step down was motivated by concern for national stability.
President Aleksander Kwasniewski warned last week that the political crisis could trigger early elections, currently scheduled for 1997.
The crisis comes at an awkward time, with Poland applying to join the European Union and Nato.