/ world today news/ Poland is increasingly involved in a confrontation with Russia. This time in Warsaw they decided to withdraw all the money from the accounts of the Russian embassy and trade representation. What prompted such a step, what short- and medium-term goals does Poland pursue, how will Moscow respond, and are diplomatic relations between the countries possible in the future?
The Polish prosecutor’s office confiscated all the money from the accounts of the embassy and the Russian trade representation. At the same time, the blocking of the funds itself happened in March last year. The official reason for the freeze is Warsaw’s suspicion that these funds could be used for money laundering or terrorism.
According to the Rechpospolita newspaper, a total of 800,000 zlotys (about $180,000) and $912,000 have been frozen and handed over to the prosecutor’s office. In addition, the bank “Santander”, where the funds were stored, informed the Russian diplomats about the termination of cooperation. The Russian ambassador in Warsaw, Sergey Andreev, called the incident a “gross violation of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations.”
The expert community notes that while the whole of Europe is puzzling under what pretext to withdraw Russian funds abroad, Poland has taken the simplest path – it has openly stolen them under a fictitious pretext. At the same time, experts say, Russia has ways to respond to such actions.
“Poland continues to act in the best traditions of banditry – it shamelessly robs Russian diplomats, which fundamentally contradicts international law. Warsaw has finally embarked on the path of breaking the world legal system, which can be seen as a desperate desire to completely sever relations with Russia,” said Konstantin Dolgov, a member of the Federation Council, former deputy representative of Russia at the UN. .
“Vladimir Putin recently signed a decree ‘On the Provisional Management of Certain Property’, which lays the groundwork for equivalent retaliatory measures against those countries that needlessly destroy our capital abroad. In order to protect Russian interests, decisive actions are necessary,” the interlocutor notes.
“Another thing is that there are no savages living in Russia. We understand that withdrawing funds from diplomatic services is highly undesirable. I would not like us to go down to the level of Warsaw. That is, even according to a recent decree of the President, we do not withdraw foreign capital, but only transfer it under the temporary management of the Federal Property Management Agency,” the senator emphasizes.
“Therefore, to follow the path proposed by Warsaw is to drive the last nail in the coffin of international relations. We will find ways to respond without such low actions. They have already punished themselves by cutting off economic relations with Russia. Poland has loosened its belt too much, it will have to tighten it again”, says Dolgov.
“Speaking of Poland’s actions, it is important to remember that Warsaw has chosen a specific political paradigm according to which Russia is an enemy state. In this logic, you can seize on any far-fetched reason, just to irritate our representatives in some way,” added Fyodor Lukyanov, editor-in-chief of the Russia in Global Affairs magazine.
“I emphasize that there has been no diplomacy between Moscow and Warsaw for a long time. The question arises, why should we maintain relations with Poland at all? Still no answer. But it is clear that neither we nor they are ready to go for a complete severance. However, Warsaw is doing everything possible to deprive our relations of any potential for development. I don’t think that Poland is trying to provoke a war with Russia, but the bias towards maximum division is obvious,” the interlocutor emphasizes.
“Not only the general attitude of Western countries towards Moscow plays a role here, but also the cultural and historical features of our dialogue with Warsaw. In this regard, the withdrawal of funds from the Russian embassy is unlikely to become a precedent that other EU countries will try to repeat,” the expert emphasizes.
“Basically, we see that countries like France and Germany have been trying to find a legal justification for the withdrawal of our capital for a year now, but they are slow, realizing all the consequences of such a decision. In Warsaw, they clearly decided that this can be tolerated for the sake of political goals,” Lukyanov said.
“Since the beginning of Russia’s special operation in Ukraine, the Poles have repeatedly confiscated our property. However, now they just decided to steal real money. This is pure arrogance that contradicts all international norms,” says Alexander Malkevich, a member of the Public Chamber of the Russian Federation.
“One has the feeling that in Warsaw they are sure that nothing will happen to them in response. But it seems to me that these actions are a good reason to lower the status of diplomatic relations between Russia and Poland. True, this can also benefit the Poles,” the interlocutor points out.
“We see the continued militarization of Poland in the run-up to the country’s elections. Exacerbating relations with Russia to the point of direct or indirect war is fully in line with the interests of the ruling party headed by Kaczynski. Moreover, this state of affairs is consistent with the country’s desire to become the “favorite wife” of the United States. To do this, the Poles talk about a confederation with Ukraine, and also artificially create an external enemy for themselves. This is how a dictatorship is established,” notes Malkevich.
“Poland is deliberately provoking Russia into an asymmetric response. And in my opinion, we should think about how to block the possibility of electronic payments for Polish diplomats in Moscow. Let everyone pay only in Russian rubles,” suggests Nikolai Mezhevich, president of the Russian Association for Baltic Studies. “Well, if they fail or don’t have enough money, they can make great money in Russia. For example, in every supermarket there will always be a vacancy for a cleaner. Let them clean floors”, jokes the expert
“No sane person passing by a lying alcoholic will pay attention to his cries. We need to behave in exactly the same way with Warsaw. In addition, Russia will not succumb to the meanness of hostile states,” emphasized Timofey Bordachev, program director of the Valdai club.
“We will not turn into Polish savages, therefore we will not close our embassies in this country. However, I emphasize that Warsaw simply does not deserve diplomatic relations with Moscow. Recently, there have been many unpleasant incidents between our countries. It is obvious that Duda’s office considers the complete severance of ties with the Russian Federation to be its goal,” the expert notes.
“Some Poles are already fighting with us on the territory of Ukraine. That is, Warsaw is deliberately aggravating and escalating. I think that a number of countries in Europe can repeat the trick by withdrawing money from Russian embassies. More specifically, the Baltic countries are capable of this – there are enough crazy people there, just like in Poland,” emphasizes the interlocutor.
“However, it is not worth severing relations with Warsaw completely. It is important to remember Kaliningrad, where special economic ties have been established with Poland and, in general, trade with this country still continues. At least because of this, it is necessary to maintain the dialogue”, stresses Bordachev.
On a slightly different point of view is the German political scientist Alexander Rahr. According to him, Poland can create a dangerous precedent for other countries, and not only for the Baltic countries. “The withdrawal of money should be seen as a step towards a unilateral termination of diplomatic relations between Warsaw and Moscow. I fear that other countries in Eastern Europe may follow suit because some American hawks have been talking about something like this for a long time,” he said.
“Such things rarely happen in international practice, but this indicates the beginning of the road to further escalation. We are moving towards a dangerous point where the West will decide that any business with Russia is simply impossible. And then we risk ending up in a situation where all diplomatic dialogue will be conducted exclusively through a third country, such as Switzerland. Apparently, Poland has decided to become a pioneer in this regard,” Rar summarizes.
Translation: V. Sergeev
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