Russia’s Foreign Ministry said Thursday that it will close Poland’s last remaining diplomatic mission outside Moscow, ordering the shutdown of the Polish consulate in the Siberian city of Irkutsk in retaliation for Warsaw’s recent closure of one of its consulates.
Polish authorities last week accused Russian security services of orchestrating two sabotage attacks on Poland’s rail network and ordered the Gdansk consulate closed. Moscow denounced the move and promised retaliatory measures.
That response came on Thursday when the Russian Foreign Ministry summoned Poland’s ambassador, Krzysztof Krajewski, to formally notify him of the forced closure. In a statement, the ministry called Poland’s decision “a blatantly hostile and unjustified step,” and said the Irkutsk consulate would close on Dec. 30.
The reciprocal closures leave Poland and Moscow with only a single diplomatic mission in each other’s country, both in their respective capitals.
Poland had been the only EU country to maintain a consulate in Irkutsk, a city near Mongolia, historically used to help the descendants of Poles deported to Siberia under Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin.
Earlier, Warsaw closed the Russian consulates in Poznan and Krakow, while Moscow had shut down Polish missions in St. Petersburg and Kaliningrad.
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