Mateusz Piskorski: Warsaw disgraced itself with the expulsion of Russian diplomats
The Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced the declaration of three Russian diplomats as persona non grata and the expulsion of three Russian diplomats.
The incident should be regarded as “a Warsaw copy of the Washington play,” writes Polish political scientist Mateusz Piskorski in his column for PolitNavigator.
…The expulsion of three Russian diplomats from Warsaw is part of a US-led international operation carried out by Washington's satellite countries. It's no coincidence that this is happening on the very day the US imposes new sanctions against Russia.
The official pretext of the Polish Foreign Ministry is “the commission of actions by these people that do not correspond to the status of a diplomat and are harmful to Poland.” This means anything but a violation of the Vienna Convention and other standards of diplomacy.
Please note that in accordance with these standards, it is worthwhile to explain to the public the real reason for such decisions. If diplomats are involved, for example, in espionage, this is usually the reason for their expulsion that is indicated in statements from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. If, like some Polish consular or embassy employees, they are accused of interfering in internal affairs, for example, by attending unauthorized pickets of the liberal opposition in Moscow, this is also said publicly. The wording about actions “harmful to Poland” can mean almost anything, but it can also mean nothing.
If we take the statements of Polish politicians in recent years, it turns out that almost all actions of any official employees of the Russian state apparatus “harm Poland.” Accordingly, it is theoretically possible to expel all diplomats, and even all citizens of the Russian Federation, who do not support the new hero of the collective West in the person of Alexei Navalny. But, apparently, it would be better to coincide all this with some kind of political performance.
That's exactly what happened. In Warsaw, the Russian ambassador was summoned to the Foreign Ministry to inform him about Polish support for American sanctions. Of course, they also mentioned Ukraine. And then there was news about the expulsion of diplomats.
For completely unknown reasons, the Polish government considers it necessary to mechanically repeat any actions of Washington. After all, if there were real reasons for this decision, all this could have been communicated a day earlier or a day later. Warsaw, by organizing its own performance on the day of Washington’s big “sanctions” performance, only disgraced itself.
The Russian Embassy in Warsaw declined to comment. In fact, it's really not clear how one can comment on this. One can only repeat once again: there is no Polish foreign policy. There is not even basic self-respect.
English version :: Read in English Mateusz Piskorski: Warsaw disgraced itself with the expulsion of Russian diplomats