MOSCOW, May 12. /TASS/. Russia is likely to close Polish Consulate General’s Offices in the country’s westernmost city of Kaliningrad and in the Eastern Siberian city of Irkutsk in response to Warsaw’s recent anti-Russian steps, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko told TASS on Monday.
Asked whether Russia would close the Polish missions, Grushko said: "It’s possible. It [Moscow] will certainly retaliate."
Earlier in the day, Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski decided to shut down the Russian Consulate General’s Office in Krakow.
A major fire broke out at a shopping mall on Marywilska Street in Warsaw’s northern part early on May 12, 2024. The entire building burned down.
Poland’s authorities later claimed that "Russian special services" were behind the incident.
Russian Ambassador to Warsaw Sergey Andreyev noted to Rossiya-24 television earlier in the day that the Polish authorities have yet to present any evidence to substantiate these claims.
Exactly one year after this incident, today, on May 12, Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski announced that Russia’s consulate general in Krakow would be closed, citing the results of a domestic investigation that points to Russia’s involvement in the incident.
"They justify it [the consulate’s closure] by claims that Russia was allegedly involved in acts of sabotage in Poland, that our special services organized last year’s shopping mall fire and that Polish law enforcement allegedly has irrefutable evidence to substantiate that, which they, of course, have not presented," Andreyev stated.