Ambassador claims Poland not threatened by Russia

Asked in an interview with Polish Radio whether he had noticed that ''many Polish politicians, political experts but also ordinary people, are quite simply frightened by Russia,'' Ambassador Sergey Andreyev said that he had, but denied that fears were due to Russian activity in Ukraine.

The ambassador argued that anxieties arose ''thanks to the efforts of the Polish media... unfortunately.''

Andreyev also denied that Russia had broken any international laws in the annexation of Crimea in March 2014, stressing the referendum held on 30 March.

The ambassador was reminded that President Vladimir Putin had said a year ago that uniformed soldiers at large in Crimea in February 2014 had probably bought their uniforms ''in a shop'' and were not Russian soldiers.

Andreyev was also reminded that last Sunday, Russian television broadcast a trailer of a documentary about Crimea, in which Putin described a key meeting with security chiefs, prior to the annexation.

''When we were parting, I said to my colleagues: we must start working on returning Crimea to Russia,” the Russian leader had said.

However, Andreyev argued that the documentary had not been screened in full yet, adding that ''what happened in Crimea was the result of the coup in Kiev,'' which the ambassador claimed occurred thanks the efforts of the West, against the wishes of ''Russian-speakers'' in Ukraine.

''The people in Crimea did not want to recognise the results of the coup,'' he continued.

''And Russia's task was to help the people of Crimea.''

Meanwhile, Ambassador Andreyev forecast that as far as Polish-Russian relations are concerned, ''I think that sooner or later the crisis will pass and normalization will occur.'' (nh)