Marcin Przydacz made the statement in a media interview on Tuesday, Polish state news agency PAP reported.
He was responding to comments made by Pavel Astakhov, a former Russian children’s ombudsman, on Russian TV on Sunday.
Przydacz, who is a top foreign policy aide to Polish President Andrzej Duda, told public broadcaster TVP: “These are outrageous, unacceptable words, especially coming from a former official. It shows how far from the standards of civilization Russia has departed today.”
Przydacz said that there was a long-standing tradition for diplomats to be protected by immunity in carrying out their duties.
Astakhov’s comments
Russia's Astakhov on Sunday accused Poland of breaching the 1961 United Nations Convention on Diplomatic Relations, according to the PAP news agency.
He said, as quoted by PAP: “I must comment on the situation in Poland. What is happening represents a serious violation of the Vienna Convention on consular relations, to which all the countries of the world that maintain diplomatic relations have subscribed since 1961.”
He added that Poland had expelled Russian diplomats “from their flats, from the holiday centre” and also “froze their accounts, took all of our diplomatic mission’s money and now have seized the school,” the PAP news agency reported.
He stated, as quoted by PAP: “And what is our response? A note, an expression of outrage, the summoning of an ambassador."
Astakhov was also quoted as saying that when the Russian ambassador to Warsaw was splashed with paint by an activist last year, “I waited to see if the Polish ambassador’s body would be found floating in the Moskva river or not.”
He suggested that such “forms of retaliation” against diplomats were allowed under international law and that was what he “was taught at the [Soviet-era security agency] KGB school,” the Polish state news agency reported.
Poland’s foreign ministry has condemned Astakhov’s remarks and called on Russia “to ensure the safety of all diplomats in accordance with the Vienna Convention.”
Poland seizes Russian embassy school
Astakhov’s remarks came after city authorities in the Polish capital Warsaw, in cooperation with Poland’s foreign ministry, on Saturday seized a building on Kielecka Street that had housed the Russian embassy’s high school.
Warsaw Mayor Rafał Trzaskowski said in a tweet: “We have seized another building that had been illegally occupied by the Russian Federation.”
Trzaskowski added that the seizure “implements a January 18, 2016 ruling by the District Court in Warsaw, under which Russia is also obliged to pay over PLN 31 million (EUR 6.7 million), plus interest, for illegally occupying the property at 45 Kielecka Street.”
‘Russia was using Warsaw school building illegally and it had to be seized’
Przydacz said in Tuesday’s interview that last year’s incident in which the Russian ambassador to Warsaw was doused with paint by protesters “wasn’t the work of the Polish government or administration but was carried out by ordinary people and the proceedings into this case are ongoing.”
He added that “such things shouldn’t be done, just as Polish ambassadors shouldn’t be subject to intimidation and so the Polish foreign ministry said in a statement it expected the Russian side to fulfil its obligations under the Vienna Convention.”
Referring to Saturday’s seizure of the building in Warsaw that had been used by the Russian embassy school, Przydacz said Polish authorities “implemented a ruling by an independent court from many years ago,” which had ordered Russia to vacate the property.
Przydacz told TVP that Russia “refused to return the property” and so was “using it illegally” and therefore “the court ruling had to be implemented.”
Asked if, "under the current circumstances," Poland should recall its ambassador from Russia, Przydacz said: “When it comes to our representation in Moscow, we are coordinating our position with fellow European states and fellow members of our trans-Atlantic community. If we jointly conclude that diplomats should be recalled then we’ll probably do so. For now, such a decision has not been taken.”
He added: ”Thanks to being stationed in Russia, the diplomats of European Union countries are also a source of information for the world. As a result, we all better understand what is happening in Moscow.”
On May 9, 2022, the Russian ambassador, Sergiy Andreev, was splashed with red paint by anti-war protesters as he attempted to mark Russia’s Victory Day by laying wreaths at the graves of Soviet soldiers at a cemetery in Warsaw.
Polish government spokesman told reporters at the time: “The Polish authorities had notified the Russian embassy of the risks involved when an official from a country that invades other states, that conducts a policy of genocide in Ukraine, publicly lays flowers, which … may be met with protests from the public.”
Tuesday is day 433 of Russia’s war on Ukraine.
(pm/gs)
Source: PAP, tvp.info