PM Kopacz: Night Wolves rally a ‘provocation’
PR dla Zagranicy
Roberto Galea
15.04.2015 11:47
The rally through Poland by the Russian Night Wolves biker club is a “provocation” to the country, says Polish Prime Minister Ewa Kopacz.
The Night Wolves biker club has around 5,000 members. Photo: cc/Wikimedia Commons
“A political game is surrounding this matter,” Kopacz told TOK FM.
The 5,000-strong group plans to ride through Poland from Russia on its way to the 9 May commemorations of the end of WWII.
Meanwhile, the Gazeta Wyborcza daily said that the Night Wolves have altered their original route to stop at the Auschwitz Museum.
One of the daily’s sources said that the club – led by Aleksander “The Surgeon” Zaldostanov, a personal ally of President Vladimir Putin – will be visiting the former Nazi-run concentration camp on 29 April.
The Foreign Ministry spokesperson Marcin Wojciechowski, did not comment on the reports by Gazeta Wyborcza, but the Auschwitz Museum has confirmed that a “group of Russians” has booked a visit at the museum.
Reports have surfaced that the Russian-based “Volunteer Association for the Support of the Armed Forces” is also planning a car rally from Moscow to Berlin to commemorate the end of World War II.
The head of the Polish biker club, the Katyn Rally, has urged authorities not to interfere with the Night Wolves rally.
“Let’s accept them in the same way that they accept us in Russia,” Wiktor Węgrzyn told Radio ZET.
Deputy Foreign Minister Rafał Trzaskowski has said that it will be up to the Polish Border Guard to decide whether to let the Russian ‘Night Wolves’ bikers travel through Poland on their way to Berlin. (rg)