warsaw in a forceful speech in warsaw denouncing russias vladimir putin and praising ukrainians president joe biden on saturday also appeared to have a more subtle message for his polish hostsspeaking of a perennial struggle for democracy biden mentioned the rule of law and freedom of the press among the principles essential in a free societyhe made his remarks in a speech attended by president andrzej duda and his conservative political allies in the ruling law and justice partysince they won power in 2015 they have been accused by the european union of eroding the rule of law with changes that have given the party vast new powers over the judicial judicial branch of governmentbiden paid homage to polands long struggle for democracy in his speech that he delivered at the royal castle which like most of warsaw was destroyed by the occupying nazi german forces during world war ii and was later rebuilthe said warsaw holds a sacred place in the history of not only of europe but humankinds unending search for freedomfor generations warsaw has stood where liberty has been challenged and liberty has prevailedthe american leader observed that democratic values have always been under siege they have always been embattledevery generation has had to defeat democracys moral foes biden saidliberal critics of duda and the government of prime minister mateusz morawiecki have been concerned that with the war in ukraine polands rising importance as a key nato country on the eastern flank could lead the united states and the eu to let up on the pressure on warsaw over the rule of lawduda clearly preferred bidens predecessor donald trump and waited weeks after the us election in 2020 to congratulate bidenbut russias invasion of ukraine has prompted duda and some other european populists to unite with democrats in the united states and european leaders whom they had been in conflict with for yearssince russia invaded ukraine poland has accepted the lions share of the more than 35 million ukrainians who have fledat the same time poland is hosting some 10000 us troops thousands of them arriving recently to help with the humanitarian crisis poland is also a base for sending military help into ukraine something that makes the country feel more vulnerablethe polish authorities were also in conflict with washington last year over legal attempts to silence tvn a broadcast network owned by the us company discovery inc the aim was to strip discovery of its control of tvn which produces independent news programs that are critical of the governmentduda late last year vetoed the legislation but concerns about press freedom remain due to the governments use of public media as a party mouthpieceat the start of his speech biden paid homage to two great poles of modern history john paul ii the first polishborn pope and solidarity leader lech walesawhile i know he couldnt be here tonight were all grateful in america and around the world to lech walesa biden said in a direct appeal to