- Poland closed the last Russian consulate in Gdansk.
- The Kremlin called this decision a degradation of diplomatic relations.
- Poland’s move was preceded by accusations of Russian involvement in sabotage.
- Russia rejects the accusations and criticizes the tendency to blame it for the incidents.
The Kremlin expressed regret in connection with the decision of the Polish authorities to close the last Russian consulate in Gdansk and considers it an attempt to “reduce to zero” diplomatic relations with the Russian Federation. According to Reuters, this was stated by the Kremlin spokesman at a briefing in Moscow on Wednesday Dmitry Peskov, writes TASR.
Peskov stated that Russian-Polish relations have deteriorated extremely. “This is a manifestation of degradation – an attempt by the Polish authorities to reduce to zero any possibility of consular or diplomatic relations,” he added, saying that this is a regrettable development.
Spokesperson for the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Marija Zakharova in his reaction to Poland threatened to reduce Poland’s diplomatic and consular presence in Russia. After the closure of the diplomatic mission in Gdansk, Russia will no longer have any consulates in Poland, only an embassy in Warsaw. Poland has two consulates general in Russia – in Kaliningrad and Irkutsk.
The Polish government’s decision to withdraw approval for the operation of the consulate in Gdansk it is related to the damage to railway lines southeast of Warsaw, which Poland blamed on the Russian secret services. Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski announced this in Warsaw on Wednesday.
The Kremlin rejects accusations of sabotage on the Polish railway. In an interview with the program “Moscow. Kremlin. Putin” on the television channel Rossiya 1, the speaker Peskov said that “Poland tends to blame Russia for any problem.” He also stated that, from his point of view, it would be very strange if Russia was not accused first. “Russia is blamed for all manifestations of hybrid and direct warfare that is underway,” he reminded.
Warsaw’s suspicions that the Ukrainians involved in the sabotage had ties to the Russian secret services were dismissed by Peskov as unfounded. However, he called the fact that “Ukrainian citizens are once again involved in acts of sabotage and terrorism against objects of critical infrastructure” remarkable. He added that if he were in the shoes of the Poles, Germans or French, he would think about Ukraine’s role in sabotaging the Nord Stream and Nord Stream 2 gas pipelines.
Two acts of diversion on Polish railways took place between November 15 and 17. In the village of Mika in the Masovian Voivodeship, a bomb exploded that damaged the tracks, and at the Golab station in the Lublin Voivodeship, the train with 475 passengers had to brake sharply due to damage to the track.
