2023-05-01 19:48:37
Moscow threatened “a harsh reaction and consequences for the Polish authorities and the interests of Poland in Russia” in connection with the eviction of the school at the Russian Embassy in Warsaw from the building it occupied. Its “capture” or, as the Polish side puts it, “seizure” can bring the countries to a severance of diplomatic relations. And although the Russian Foreign Ministry admits that such a scenario would not be in the interests of Russian citizens, such a turn cannot be ruled out. Apparently, Moscow will not go to extreme measures yet, but the diplomatic war will gain momentum.
Operation “Seizure”
A special statement by the Russian Foreign Ministry “in connection with the seizure of the school” at the Russian Embassy in Warsaw was made on Saturday, April 29. “We consider these yet another hostile actions of the Polish authorities as a blatant violation of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations of 1961 and an encroachment on Russian diplomatic property in Poland. Such an impudent move by Warsaw, which goes beyond the framework of civilized interstate communication, will not remain without our harsh reaction and consequences for the Polish authorities and Poland’s interests in Russia. This needs to be understood by the initiators of such controversial, illegal and provocative undertakings,” the ministry said.
On April 30, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova warned on the Rossiya 1 TV channel that Moscow was preparing a “very tough” response.
Shortly before this, Deputy Chairman of the Security Council of the Russian Federation Dmitry Medvedev admitted that he sees “no point in continuing diplomatic relations with Poland.” “This state should not exist for us as long as there is no one in power except Russophobes,” the ex-president said.
Ms. Zakharova noted on television that Russia can indeed take an extreme step, but the first to suffer from this are the citizens of the Russian Federation, “who live there, work there, who have families.” In addition, compatriots who come to Poland from the territory of Ukraine also need help. In addition, Russian diplomats are engaged in the preservation of Soviet monuments in the republic, and also “there is a huge amount of everything that needs to be done.” “You always want to act emotionally, in a rush, and, most importantly, we have the right to do so. They really have been engaged in provocations from year to year for decades, and I perfectly understand everyone who would say: “What are our people doing there?”, – said the official representative of the Foreign Ministry.
What the Russian side calls the seizure, and the Polish side – “seizure” or “enforcement proceedings in relation to the property” was really scandalous.
On the morning of April 29, bailiffs accompanied by police officers arrived at the building of the secondary school at the Russian Embassy at 45 Keletskaya Street. Andrey Ordash, an adviser to the Russian embassy in Warsaw, told TASS that representatives of the Polish authorities broke the entrance gate and entered the building. At that moment there were 29 people in the school, including students. The Russians were given until 18:00 to leave the territory. School equipment was allowed to be removed within a week. “The Poles are breaking down the doors of the Russian school at the embassy. Let’s remember this day, ”wrote the head of Rossotrudnichestvo, Yevgeny Primakov, on his Telegram channel.
The Polish Foreign Ministry made no secret of the fact that the city authorities acted “with the full consent” of the ministry. The use of force, according to the Polish authorities, had to be due to the refusal of the Russian side to “open the gates and doors.”
“We had to call a locksmith who used tools to get to the building. The locksmith also helped break open the front door… The Russians living on the territory left the building voluntarily,” said Warsaw Vice Mayor Tomasz Bratek.
When it was all over, the mayor of Warsaw, Rafał Trzaskowski, who personally sought the eviction of the school, wrote on social networks: “I express my gratitude to the bailiffs, security officers and officers for their help in the prompt removal of the object.” The mayor said that “the object did not have any diplomatic status – it was not subject to immunity”, but now it is “transferred to the rightful owner – the State Treasury.”
For Russian diplomats, the eviction of the school did not come as a surprise. Russian Ambassador to Warsaw Sergei Andreev confirmed that some time ago the bailiffs’ service demanded that the building be vacated and handed over to the city by April 29. Anticipating such a turn, the diplomatic mission prepared new premises for students in advance, which, according to the ambassador, are not as “comfortable and adapted for school needs.” One way or another, following May 10, classes will resume.
According to the school website, there are 44 students in primary education, 62 in basic general education, and 17 in secondary general education. “This is a beautiful, spacious school in a prestigious district of Warsaw. It has everything you need: a good library, a gym, – one of the parents, whose children graduated from an educational institution not so long ago, confirmed to Kommersant. – The teachers lived right there, in a separate block on the territory of the complex. By the way, the children of not only diplomats from Russia, but also many other countries, and not only the CIS, studied at the school. Before, even the Poles studied.”
According to Mr. Trzaskowski, the mayor’s office is going to continue to use the building “for educational purposes.”
To be continued
It is noteworthy that in the Polish media the events on Kielce were reported as a routine fact. Polish officials refer to the decision of the Warsaw District Court as early as January 18, 2016, which demanded that the Russians vacate several facilities, including a school, and at the same time pay more than 31 million zloty with interest “for the illegal occupation of the building.”
The diplomatic dispute between Moscow and Warsaw over the legal status of Russian property has dragged on for decades.
Last year the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Poland informed in response to a request from the Onet.pl portal that “currently, the Russian Federation uses 11 real estate objects free of charge, which were transferred to it under agreements between the Polish People’s Republic (PPR) and the USSR.”
Official Warsaw claims that “only in relation to some of them Russia has the right of ownership”, and some of the objects are used without valid contracts. The Polish authorities claim that the Russian Federation “has been evading for years the payment of the due rent, as well as the return (of the premises. -” Kommersant “) on the basis of court decisions that have entered into legal force.” Moscow calls these decisions illegal.
Experts note that the dispute remained sluggish until the entry of Russian troops into Ukraine in 2022. It was then that Poland forced the process, at the same time freezing the accounts of the embassy and the trade mission of the Russian Federation in March.
First of all, the Warsaw City Hall took away on April 11, 2022, a residential complex on Jan III Sobieski Street, in accordance with the same court decision from 2016. It was built in the 1970s for the families of Soviet diplomats and has been abandoned in recent years, attracting local stalkers. “The complex… was considered one of the most mysterious buildings in the capital. Two interconnected high-rise buildings have acquired a lot of urban legends, Varsovians called this building “spy”,” wrote Onet.pl.
Then, in November 2022, the Polish Ministry of Climate and Environment announced the seizure of the Skubianka recreation center in the Jablonna forestry near Warsaw from the Russian Embassy for non-payment of rent. Ambassador Sergei Andreev then explained that the embassy stopped paying rent (12,000 zlotys a month) through no fault of its own, but because of the freezing of accounts.
Now the turn has come to the embassy school, which is located in close proximity to the prosecutor’s office and the Ministry of Defense of Poland. By the way, the very history of the school is connected with the military department. “It was organized by Marshal and Minister of Defense of Poland Konstantin Rokossovsky, when in the early 1950s, at the request of the head of the PPR, Boleslav Bierut, 300 Soviet military advisers were sent there,” Marshal’s great-granddaughter Ariadna Rokossovskaya told Kommersant. Soviet Union, but in Poland there were no military specialists who might serve him, they had to be trained. Rokossovsky understood that the advisers would come with their families, with children, they would need to study somewhere. Therefore, a school was set up next to the Ministry of Defense.” In 1953, it was transferred to the USSR Embassy for unlimited use.
The Polish authorities refer to the fact that the building on Kielce was nationalized and transferred to the USSR in 1945, but now it is subject to seizure in accordance with the law on property restitution. Polish media even figured outthat before the war it was a private property that belonged to the opera singer Jan Kiepura. At the same time, Jan Kiepura emigrated to the United States back in 1938, and his descendants did not claim the building. Moreover, in 2017, the Polish Senate itself limited all claims for restitution to a 30-year statute of limitations, since by that time a lot of abuses had accumulated, from which tens of thousands of Warsaw residents suffered.
Experts believe that the current action can hardly be associated with the election campaign that will start in Poland in the near future, since the “seizure” of the school was supported by all political forces – both the ruling Law and Justice party (which controls the Ministry of Foreign Affairs), and its opponents from “Civil Coalition” (the mayor is a member of it).
“This is precisely a political gesture associated with the special operation of the Russian Federation, and it was calculated precisely on the stormy reaction of Moscow,” says the interlocutor of Kommersant, who is familiar with the balance of power in Warsaw.
How note Polish media, “it’s not over yet.” “There are at least three buildings in Warsaw illegally occupied by the Russian Federation,” said Alexandra Gaevskaya, deputy of the Seimas, member of the “Civil Coalition”, “We must act ruthlessly.” And, probably, Moscow will respond to every such step with countermeasures, so the diplomatic war, apparently, will not end with the incident with the school.
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