Poland cancels operations permit for Russian consulate in Krakow
Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski has withdrawn the operations permit for Russia's consulate in the southern city of Krakow after Poland confirmed Russian special services were involved in a fire that destroyed a large retail centre in Warsaw in 2024.
Sikorski announced the news on the X platform on Monday morning.
"In relation to the evidence showing that Russian special services carried out a reprehensible act of sabotage against a retail centre in Marywilska Street, I made the decision to withdraw the operations permit for the consulate of the Russian Federation in Krakow," Sikorski wrote.
The decision comes a day after Prime Minister Donald Tusk announced that the Polish security services had established that Russia was behind the fire.
On May 12, 2024, the Marywilska 44 retail centre in Warsaw was engulfed in flames, resulting in the destruction of nearly 1,400 shops and service outlets. The incident undermined the livelihoods of approximately 2,000 merchants and their employees.
"Some of the perpetrators have already been detained, all the others are identified and searched for," Tusk wrote on the X platform on Sunday evening. "We will get you all!" he added.
Justice Minister Adam Bodnar and Interior Minister Tomasz Siemoniak also released a joint statement regarding the incident on the justice ministry's website on Sunday.
"Currently, based on the evidence collected, we know that the fire was a result of arson directed by Russian special services," the ministers wrote. They added that according to the investigators, the operation was organised and led by a known individual residing in the Russian Federation. Some of the alleged perpetrators are under arrest, while others have been identified and are being pursued by law enforcement, Bodnar and Siemoniak said in the statement.
Russia's Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Monday that "Warsaw is consciously destroying relations" between the two countries and added that Russia would make "an adequate response" to the decision to close the consulate.
In October last year, Sikorski revoked the operations permit for the Russian consulate in the western city of Poznan, referencing a series of hybrid attacks that Poland associated with Moscow.
Hybrid attacks attributed to Russia have been recorded in a number of other countries, including the Baltic states and Germany. (PAP)
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