BREST, April 28. /TASS/. Russian bikers from Night Wolves club will continue their motocross Moscow-Berlin dedicated to the 70th anniversary of Victory Day despite Poland’s refusal to allow them into the country, motocross head Alexander Bobrovsky told a press conference in Belarusian Brest on Tuesday.
On Monday, April 27, a group of Russian motorcyclists was denied entry to Poland at the Brest-Terespol border crossing checkpoint. Bobrovsky said that Polish border guards informed them that participants of the motocross were included in the list of people prohibited from entering the Schengen area.
"We are bad, we should not be allowed into the European Union," Night Wolves leader Alexander Zaldostanov said. "However, there is not two of us, or twenty," he added.
Bikers will continue their motocross, Zaldostanov noted. "I will not disclose any details yet, but we will continue [the motocross]," he stressed.
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- Warsaw bans Russian bikers from crossing Polish territory in Moscow-Berlin motocross
- Polish politician calls campaign against Russian bikers "political paranoia"
Russophobic sentiment in Europe may not end well
Russophobic sentiment may not end well, "Night Wolves" biker club leader said.
"This Russophobia will not end well. It is becoming absurd. On the eve of Victory Day, we are forced to hide, covertly visit the tombs of out predecessors," Zaldostanov said.
Before the press conference, the biker club leader read out the message of Second World War veterans from Oryol and Tula to veterans in European countries who also fought Nazism. Zaldostanov thanked his Polish colleagues who arrived at the Brest-Terespol border crossing checkpoint from the Polish side.
He described yesterday’s incident with Russian bikers at the Belarusian-Polish border as "circus." "What we saw yesterday is a cheap circus performance from provincial troupe," Zaldostanov said. "We were going to visit tombs, a cemetery. And at that moment, we see decorations being set up in front of us, and the play starts. It is unclear what they wanted to show us. It is obvious that it was a theatrical play. It’s cheap - I cannot find another word for it. It is humiliating first of all for those who staged this play. Yesterday, we touched the face of democracy. This is not a face, it’s a sneer," he added.
Germany earlier revoked visas of several participants of the motocross. Initially, the route lay through Minsk, Brest, Wroclaw, Brno, Bratislava, Vienna, Munich and Prague.
Russia’s Ambassador to Poland Sergey Andreev said earlier on Tuesday that Poland’s decision to deny entry to Night Wolves bikers will negatively affect bilateral relations between Warsaw and Moscow. "There were no grounds for such decision," Andreev told Rossiya 1 TV channel. "We regret that such a decision was made," he added.
"Of course, such situations cannot go unnoticed for our future relations," the diplomat noted. "The 70th anniversary of Victory Day and everything connected to it is definitely a very sensitive topic for us," he stressed.