Poland expels 45 Russian diplomats
The Hindu
Warsaw says they were involved in espionage; Moscow denies allegation, threatens to retaliate
Poland on Wednesday said it had expelled 45 Russian diplomats for espionage, an allegation immediately dismissed as baseless by Russia’s Ambassador to Poland.
Interior Minister Mariusz Kaminski made the announcement on Twitter.
“Poland has expelled 45 Russian spies pretending to be diplomats,” he wrote. “We are dismantling the Russian special services network in our country.”
Russian Ambassador to Poland Sergey Andreyev confirmed the expulsions, telling reporters that the individuals concerned had been given five days to leave Poland.
“There are no grounds for these kinds of accusations,” he said, adding that Russia reserved the right to take retaliatory measures.
Bilateral diplomatic relations remained in place, he said: “The embassies remain, the ambassadors remain.”
“Tolerating this type of illegal activity by Russian services would especially threaten Poland’s security and the security of our NATO and European Union allies,” Lukasz Jasina, spokesman for the Polish Foreign Ministry, said.