Russian envoys feel heat of European rage over invasion
Russian diplomat Sergiy Andreev was feeling unwelcome on the streets of Warsaw even before protesters threw red paint in his face this week.
Soon after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on February 24, Andreev, who is Moscow’s ambassador in Poland, found the embassy bank accounts had been frozen.
Attempts to meet Polish officials for diplomatic discussion were impossible, he said.
His barber refused to cut his hair. Insurance firms denied coverage for embassy cars, he said.
“We are practically isolated,” said before the paint incident on Monday, which prompted Russia to demand an apology from Poland or risk facing unspecified further steps.
Across Europe’s capitals, Russian diplomats are getting the cold shoulder, ranging from diplomatic expulsions by governments, to protests by citizens and service denials by companies.
European Union governments have expelled at least 400 Russian envoys and staff. Warsaw has seized a building linked to the Russian embassy. Oslo renamed a street in front of the Russian mission “Ukraine Square”.
Russia’s 10-week bombardment of Ukraine has killed thousands, driven over a quarter of the population from their homes and flattened towns. Europeans widely see it as unprovoked aggression by President Vladimir Putin, who described the attacks as a special military operation launched to defend Russia.
Western nations have responded by arming Ukraine’s military and imposing sweeping sanctions on Russia’s financial system and its elites.
The diplomats’ tribulations are not comparable to the destruction of the war or the broader Western response, but they are an example of the depth of hostility against the invasion, and have hit home in Moscow.
Public protests have prompted Moscow to warn diplomats to think twice when they venture out, after embassies were defaced by red paint in Rome, Sofia and Prague. In London, protesters piled cookware and appliances in front of Russia’s mission in April, in reference to reports of Russian looting in Ukraine.
“There are attacks, practically terrorist acts against our institutions and against the physical security of diplomats,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told Rossiya 24 television.
“Now we do not recommend they go out” alone, said Lavrov, calling the anti-Russian atmosphere stoked by the West discriminatory.
In Poland, Andreev was at Warsaw’s Soviet Military Cemetery on Monday to lay flowers to mark the 77th anniversary of the victory over Nazi Germany when he was surrounded by protesters – some holding Ukrainian flags and chanting “fascists” at the Russian delegation – before a woman hurled a lumpy red liquid into his face.
On Wednesday, Russia’s Foreign Ministry demanded a formal apology from Poland and that the safety of its diplomats and staff in the country be ensured, warning of unspecified further steps “depending on Warsaw’s reaction to our demands”.
Polish Foreign Minister Zbigniew Rau said authorities had warned Andreev that attending the cemetery on Monday risked provoking an incident, but emphasised that diplomatic representatives of foreign nations are entitled to protection regardless of policy disagreements.
Speaking to Reuters in April, Andreev said Poland had breached the Vienna Convention that specifies rules for hosting diplomats.
Swiss police told Reuters last month there have been “expressions of displeasure, threats and damage to property towards the Russian embassy”, and police made unspecified security adjustments. In Bucharest, a driver died ramming his car into the gate of the Russian embassy on April 6.
As in Warsaw, the Russian embassy in Paris has been running low on cash, with Moscow instructing diplomats there to cut spending to a minimum, according to a diplomatic source from a country that has not imposed sanctions on Russia and continues to engage with the embassy.
The embassy declined to comment.
There are attacks, practically terrorist acts against our … diplomats RUSSIAN FOREIGN MINISTER SERGEY LAVROV ON ‘DISCRIMINATORY’ ACTS
In Lithuania, two banks have or will cut money transfers to and from Russia and Belarus, and, like in Poland, insurance firms have refused to insure embassy cars.
“They are not insuring damages for the Russian embassy,” said Andrius Romanovskis, chair of the Lithuanian Insurers Association. “My understanding is these decisions are not of commercial nature, but have to do with reputational and moral choices.”
The Russian embassy in Lithuania’s capital Vilnius confirmed its troubles.
“The embassy has recently been facing a number of problems in the banking and insurance sector, as well as with the fulfilment by certain companies of their obligations under existing contracts,” press secretary Alexander Kudryavtsev said.
Prague changed the embassy’s street name to “Ukrainian Heroes’ Street” while the district where the Russian embassy is based has requested that a Russian school building, unused since the Czechs expelled dozens of Russian diplomats, be made available for Ukrainian refugee children.
The measures have led to some retaliation from Russia, which has kicked out a number of European diplomats. The Polish Foreign Ministry said streets had been dug up around its embassy in Moscow, and the work of the embassy was “restricted in every way by the Russian side”.