Poland announced Wednesday that its government intends to expel 45 Russian diplomats, all of which were allegedly working undercover for Moscow’s secret service, according to Special Services spokesperson Stanislaw Zaryn.
Russia’s ambassador to Warsaw was summoned to Poland’s foreign ministry prior to the announcement, Reuters reported.
Ambassador Sergei Andre’ev told reporters following the meeting, “They will have to go. This is a sovereign decision by the Polish side, and they have the right to their own decision.” He added, however, that Russia also has the right to take further steps but offered no details.
“In total, 45 people with varying diplomatic status… were ordered to leave the territory of the Republic of Poland within 5 days,” Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lukasz Jasina told reporters at a subsequent news briefing.
“Russia is our neighbor, it will not disappear from the map of Europe,” he said. “But the aggression towards Ukraine proves that it is an unfriendly state and even hostile to Poland.”
Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev threatened authorities in Warsaw on Monday after Poland severed its economic ties with Moscow, according to a report by Newsweek.
Medvedev, currently the deputy chairman of the Russian security council, sharply criticized Poland for siding with the US and other Western nations over the invasion.
“The interests of Polish citizens have been sacrificed due to Russophobia of ‘mediocre politicians’ and their ‘puppeteers from across the ocean’ with clear signs of senile insanity,” Medvedev wrote on Telegram, in a reference to US President Joe Biden.
He added that Poland and its propaganda is “the most vicious, vulgar and shrill critic of Russia. Community of political idiots.”
