In an official statement, the Russian Foreign Ministry described Warsaw’s actions regarding the buildings belonging to the Russian Federation embassy as “an impudent step beyond the framework of civilized interstate communication”. The department promises that this limitation will not be released without a “firm response” from Moscow, TASS reported.
The Russian Federation considers the actions of the Warsaw authorities “a flagrant violation of the 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations and another encroachment on Russian diplomatic property in Poland”.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said Poland had “violated international law” for many years. He described the actions of the Polish police as a provocation.
“The official Warsaw has been breaking the law for years: international law, bilateral agreements, domestic legislation. Behaves defiantly and illegally. What can be described in one word – provocation,” he said.
Earlier, the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs had asked the Warsaw City Hall and the police to initiate proceedings against two buildings occupied by the Russian Federation Embassy. According to TASS, Russian diplomats were given until 19:00 Moscow time on Saturday, April 29, to evacuate the school building at the diplomatic mission.
“This is a legal arbitrariness, a gross and unprecedented violation of the Vienna Convention. <…>. after 9 o’clock [утра] They started breaking the entrance door, broke it, got into the building, now they are inspecting all the buildings. There are 29 people in total, including children. Everyone has been ordered to leave the school building with their personal belongings, ”said Andrei Ordash, Counselor-Ambassador of the Russian Embassy in Warsaw.
Polish authorities allowed the removal of school supplies within a week. “We will not leave such actions of the Poles unresponsive,” Ordash promised.
The Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs is demanding that the Russian authorities vacate “real estate that is not used for diplomatic and consular purposes and is in the illegal possession of the Russian Federation.” In addition to the school at the embassy, we are talking about a building in which embassy employees used to live and which needs repair.
On the morning of April 29, Warsaw City Hall officials, together with police officers, cut the lock on the door next to the embassy school after Russian diplomats refused to let them enter the area.
After the incident, Russian Ambassador to Poland Sergei Andreev said that the actions of the Polish authorities were “not a surprise”. He also added that spare rooms were prepared for the continuation of the lessons.
In March 2022, the Polish authorities blocked the accounts of the Russian embassy and trade mission in Warsaw. Rzeczpospolita newspaper reported that $1.1 million was frozen.Polish authorities also confiscated a large number of properties belonging to the Russian embassy. In response, the Russian Federation blocked the accounts of the Polish embassy in Moscow.
As early as March 1, 2022, the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs initiated the process of confiscating two properties in Warsaw that were in the “unauthorized possession” of the Russian Federation and were not “used for diplomatic purposes”.
The decision was made in connection with the “inequality in the volume of property owned”. [России] In Polish-Russian relations” and “lack of hopes of solving this problem in the foreseeable future.”
As stated in the message of the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs dated March 1, 2022, the Polish court decided to transfer two buildings in Warsaw to the state treasury of the republic. Then Warsaw wants to hand them over to the Ukrainian side.