US EditionRussia closes Polish consulate in Siberia in tit-for-tat move
Both countries will have only their embassies open after Russia ordered Poland to close its Irkutsk consulate following Poland’s closure of Russia’s Gdańsk consulate.
- On Thursday, Russia summoned Poland's ambassador Krzysztof Krajewski and ordered the Polish Consulate General in Irkutsk closed in retaliation for Warsaw’s earlier move.
- Last week, Warsaw closed the Russian Gdańsk consulate after accusing Moscow of orchestrating sabotage earlier this month involving an explosive device and agents working for Moscow.
- Poland is the only European country maintaining a consulate in Irkutsk, a post that has helped repatriate descendants of Poles exiled to Siberia under Stalin, while the Irkutsk and Gdańsk consulates are the last each country operates in the other.
- Russia's foreign ministry called Warsaw's decision `an openly hostile and unjustified step`, while Poland's foreign ministry had not commented and Tomasz Siemoniak said Warsaw `had expected this`.
- Amid a pattern of sabotage attributed to operatives recruited by Russia, Poland says prosecutors drafted charges over the rail attack and identified two Ukrainians who fled to Belarus, though extradition prospects appear slim.
41 Articles
41 Articles
It is located in Irkutsk.
Russia to close Polish consulate in Siberia in row over railway sabotage
Russia on Thursday ordered Poland to close its consulate in the Siberian city of Irkutsk in retaliation for Warsaw's decision to close the last Russian consulate in Poland after a railway explosion that was blamed on Moscow.
Moscow Shuts Polish Consulate in Tit-for-Tat Move
Russia summoned Poland’s ambassador on Thursday and announced it would shut Warsaw’s consulate in the Siberian city of Irkutsk in retaliation for Poland closing a Russian consulate over accusations of sabotage. Russia’s war with Ukraine has badly damaged ties between Warsaw and Moscow, with Poland becoming a hub for Kyiv-bound Western weapons and taking in hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian refugees. Warsaw last week closed Russia’s Gdańsk cons…
The Russian Foreign Ministry summoned the Polish ambassador today and handed him a decision that the last consulate in Russia must be closed by the end of December.
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