MOSCOW, April 29. /TASS/. Moscow assesses Warsaw’s refusal to allow a group of Russian bikers to enter Poland as an especially cynical and malicious gesture aimed at deliberately worsening Russian-Polish relations, the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Friday.

"On April 28, the Polish Foreign Ministry informed Russia’s Embassy in Warsaw that Polish authorities refuse to allow entrance to the territory of Poland for members of the group ‘Russian Motorcyclists’ in the framework of their annual motor rally ‘Roads of Victory’ devoted to the 71st anniversary of the Victory in the Great Patriotic War," the foreign ministry said. "Such decision is made in Warsaw for second year in a row. This time the Polish side did not even cite any formal grounds to justify it," the ministry added.

"We assess Warsaw’s refusal, that deprived a group of Russian citizens from an opportunity to pay respects to Soviet soldiers who died when liberating Europe from Nazism, as an especially cynical and malicious gesture aimed at deliberately worsening Russian-Polish relations," the ministry noted. "We are especially concerned that the aforementioned decision was made after Russian authorities provided maximum assistance to the Polish side in April in holding memorial service on the territory of the Smolensk Region connected with the anniversary of the Katyn tragedy and crash of the Polish president’s plane near Smolensk on 20 April 2010," the foreign ministry continued.

"In connection with unfriendly actions of Polish authorities, the Russian Foreign Ministry on April 29 summoned the Polish ambassador in Russia," the foreign ministry said. "It was noted that the decision of the Polish side, especially in the wake of Victory Day celebrations, is a mockery of paying respect to those who died fighting Nazism. The responsibility for inevitable negative consequences for bilateral relations will lie exclusively on the Polish side," the ministry concluded.