Envoy refuses to treat attack on Russian diplomats in Warsaw as spontaneous

MOSCOW, May 11. (ST)- Russian Ambassador to Poland Sergey Andreyev said on Wednesday he does not think the May 9 attack he came under with his fellow diplomats at a memorial cemetery in Warsaw was “a spontaneous move”.

 

“There is no reason behind it. I refuse to believe it was a spontaneous move,” he said during a live Channel One broadcast. “Poland has high-qualified, adequate agencies, law enforcement and security service. It had been prepared for a long time <…>. Nor can I believe that relevant Polish agencies did not know about or control the preparations.”

 

“Everybody knew his maneuver – what to shout out and when. We got cordoned off by a group of sturdy men who blocked any close contact. The people knew what they were doing and what a more severe incident could lead to,” Andreyev said.

 

The diplomat also said that agencies in Poland “have been trying to shift the blame between themselves.” “Justifying oneself is very hard, so this certainly makes the so-called partners of ours appear in a very bad light,” he added.

 

The envoy also said the Polish foreign minister was the only person to have regretted the incident, while other officials have responded by saying that “the ambassador himself was to blame, that it was a deliberate provocation.” “Suggestions have even been made that the Russians might have orchestrated it all themselves,” the diplomat concluded.

 

On Monday, Andreyev arrived with a visit to the Soviet military cemetery in Warsaw in a diplomatic car with a Russian flag. As he stepped out of the car, he was surrounded by an aggressive crowd that had previously convened at this memorial site carrying Ukrainian flags, sheets soaked with red paint and anti-Russian slogans. The police weren’t present on the square at that moment. The diplomats managed to make several dozen steps, but the crowd didn’t allow them to move further.

 

For several minutes, the crowd shouted at the diplomats and hurled packages with a red substance at them. The ambassador later said during a live Rossiya-24 TV broadcast that the diplomats were doused with sweet syrup. After a while, the police pushed back the crowd and escorted the diplomats to their cars. None of them was seriously hurt.

 

The Russian Foreign Ministry has expressed a resolute protest to the Polish authorities, demanding that Poland immediately arrange a wreath-laying ceremony, ensuring it’s completely safe from any provocations. The Polish Foreign Ministry said the attack was regretful and shouldn’t have happened since all countries’ diplomats are protected.

 

Source: TASS