On April 29, Polish authorities evicted a secondary school attached to the Russian embassy from a building in Warsaw, claiming Russian diplomats illegally owned the facility. The Russian Foreign Ministry called the actions a seizure and threatened “consequences for Poland’s interests in Russia.” About the situation around the school, the reaction of Russia and what could threaten Polish facilities in the country – in the material of Russian media.
On May 2, the Russian Foreign Ministry protested to Poland’s acting Chargé d’Affaires Jacek Szczlyadowski about the seizure of the school building.
“This blatant act is a flagrant violation of the 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations and seems particularly cynical – it is directed against children who study at school, whom the Polish authorities brazenly put on the streets,” said in a ministerial statement.
Shlyadevsky was told that Poland’s actions were part of a policy “devoid of any idea of the standards of morality, morality and law” and aimed at “attempting to annoy Russia and destroy our relations with the soil “.
The Russian Foreign Ministry has accused Poland of demolishing Soviet monuments, “protecting from acts of vandalism” on Soviet military graves, “deliberately falsifying” the history of World War II, supplying weapons to the Ukraine and sending mercenaries there, as well as “openly aggressive hostile acts”. position” against Russia. The Foreign Ministry warned of an “appropriate reaction” to these actions, which “will not be long in coming”.
How informed TASS, the Polish diplomat stayed in the Foreign Ministry building for about 20 minutes and left, declining to comment.
Seizure of Russian real estate in Poland
On April 29, Polish bailiffs, accompanied by police officers and Warsaw City Hall employees, broke into the entrance to the school building of the Russian Embassy in Warsaw and ordered the employees to leave the territory before the evening.
Other premises belonging to the diplomatic mission have been fitted out for the school and its staff. By words Russian Ambassador to Warsaw Sergey Antonov, classes will resume after vacation on May 10. Warsaw Vice Mayor Tomar Bratek said an inventory would be carried out in the building and it would be checked whether its condition meets the requirements of educational institutions.
The Polish Foreign Ministry says two buildings “illegally” owned by Russia – a school on Kielecka Street in Warsaw and a house for diplomats on Sobieski Street – are not being used for diplomatic and consular purposes. In March 2022, the department requested the opening of enforcement proceedings against this property.
In the same month, the Polish authorities confiscated building on Sobieski Street, with the intention of transferring it to Ukraine. The Russian ambassador said it was “categorically unsuitable for anyone’s resettlement” and needed a long and expensive repair.
How did Russia react to the situation with the school?
Russian Foreign Ministry appointed seizure of the school at the embassy by seizure, “hostile actions” and encroachment on Russian diplomatic assets.
“Such a brazen decision by Warsaw that goes beyond civilized interstate communication will not remain without our harsh reaction and its consequences for the Polish authorities and Poland’s interests in Russia,” the Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokeswoman warned. Foreign Affairs, Maria Zakharova.
May 2 Russian Embassy sent a protest note to the Polish Foreign Ministry.
Russian Security Council Deputy Chairman Dmitry Medvedev on the day of the school seizure tweeted in English and Polish, saying he saw no point in maintaining diplomatic relations with Poland. “This state should not exist for us as long as Russophobes are in power and Ukraine is full of Polish mercenaries, who should be exterminated without mercy like stinking rats,” he wrote.
Russian Ambassador noted that the diplomatic mission is ready for any decision by Moscow after the withdrawal from the school, until the severance of diplomatic relations. Zakharova declared that Russia has the right to sever its relations with the republic, but that it will not do so, because then the Russians who live and work in Poland will suffer. She noted that diplomats help people leaving Ukraine via Poland and also protect Soviet monuments from demolition.
Press secretary of Russian President Dmitry Peskov, commenting on the possibility of severing diplomatic relations with Poland, declared that Russian-Polish relations “expect nothing good”, and added that the actions of the Polish authorities cannot remain without consequences.
What objects from Poland are in Russia
In Russia function the Polish Embassy in Moscow, the General Consulates in Irkutsk, Kaliningrad and St. Petersburg, as well as the Consular Agency in Smolensk.
Two large memorial complexes are also linked to Poland in Russia: “Katyn” in the Smolensk region and “Copper” in the Tver region, where Polish war officers shot in 1940 and victims of Soviet repressions are buried. Both memorials are under the jurisdiction of the Central State Museum of Contemporary History of Russia.
In March 2022, shortly after the outbreak of hostilities in Ukraine, State Duma deputies, regional parliamentarians and public figures urged the Russian government to close the Katyn and Medny memorials due to modern Poland’s “hostile behavior”, its “Russophobic policies” and public support for Ukraine.
The authors of the appeal also suggested that the Polish part of the Katyn memorial complex be dismantled until “legal grounds exist for taking the decision to reinstall these monuments or their final and complete dismantling due to their obvious historical and legal illegality” appear.
In June 2022, the Polish flags were removed from the Katyn and Medny memorials. Director of the Museum of Contemporary History of Russia Irina Velikanova explain this is because the republic has adopted an “openly hostile policy” towards Russia. The Russian and Polish flags on the memorials were a symbol of friendship between the two countries, and “what is happening today has nothing to do with friendship,” Velikanova said.
She mentioned the demolition of Soviet monuments in Poland, Warsaw’s military support for Ukraine, “gross antics” against Russian diplomats and “inappropriate remarks” about Russian culture.
“Under these conditions, the placement of state symbols of the Republic of Poland on the territory of memorials is inappropriate,” Velikanova said.
Mayor of Smolensk Andrei Borisov, commenting on the situation, appointed the removal of Polish flags from memorials is “the only right decision” in the context of “blatant anti-Russian statements by Polish politicians”.
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