WARSAW, Poland (AP) — The Russian ambassador to Poland did not show up Monday for a meeting at the Polish Foreign Ministry where he had been summoned because of a Russian cruise missile that violated Polish airspace on the weekend, the Polish ministry’s spokesman said.
In tomorrow’s news: Russian ambassador kicked out of Poland for failure to show up.
And the day after: Putin threatens nuclear attack on Warsaw over anti-Russian actions.
So, assuming that this is intentional – and it isn’t impossible that it’s just some kind of screw-up – I don’t think that it’s normally considered acceptable to just refuse a summons. That’s not a way to express disagreement.
https://gpil.jura.uni-bonn.de/2020/07/summoning-or-inviting-an-ambassador-is-there-a-difference/
There is no obligation under international law to comply with a summons, but failure to do so may prompt the receiving State to declare the head of mission persona non grata.
And Poland is clearly hinting at that.
Paweł Wroński, the Polish Foreign Ministry spokesman, told reporters in a brief statement outside the ministry that Andreev did not come to the meeting, and that his failure to appear has led the Warsaw government to wonder “whether he is able to properly represent the interests of the Russian Federation in Warsaw.”
That being said, I don’t think that the Polish Foreign Ministry has this right, if it’s saying refusing a summons is a violation of the Vienna Convention:
Wroński said the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations “clearly defines the duties of an ambassador in a host state.”
EDIT: Yeah, it was intentional:
Andreyev himself confirmed he had not visited the ministry, saying that Poland had not provided any evidence of the missile violating Polish airspace, reports Reuters, citing Russian state news agency Novosti.
Wroński noted that the ministry would send a diplomatic note to Russia formally requesting clarification regarding the incident, which happened on Sunday morning amid the Russian bombardment of western Ukraine.
“Serving” a diplomatic summons is basically an aggravated appointment negotiation. Nothing wrong with the summoned person having a shower and breakfast and briefing first but it’s very much expected to cancel other appointments if need be, pretty much only excluding doctor’s appointments and stuff. A diplomatic mission has the duty (Article 3 (1) a,c) to represent the sending state and promote friendly relations, it very much stands to reason that if the receiving state is pissed and the sending state’s diplomat is not there to at least waffle and drone then they’re not fulfilling their duty. You can’t just snub the host.
So, assuming that he was acting under orders from the Foreign Ministry and not on his own – which I assume is the case, given that Moscow’s had enough hours to sort this out if he was just going off the rails individually – you figure that Russia wants to have an international spat over this. I wonder what they aim to gain? Some kind of “look, NATO is being hostile” thing for the Russian public? I don’t really see how Russia gains from this.
If that’s the position that Moscow has and intends to maintain this position, then declaring him persona non grata and ejecting him from Poland means that presumably Poland’s going to just do a similar declaration for each new replacement ambassador who gets sent in, since it’s not actually the ambassador that’s the factor in question.
Poland could totally break diplomatic relations, but I don’t think that they’d say that this warrants that.
You are thinking too far.
The Russian position is “What missile? We never send a missile there! Did you see a missile? Where are the pictures of the missile? We didn’t see a missile!”
If that’s the Russian position then it’s the ambassador’s duty to tell the Poles.
I’d wager they’re fishing for what Poland’s response will be to the missile issue, and seeing how far they can ‘push it’, whilst still feeling comfortable themselves.
They already know that they aren’t going to be on good terms with Poland for a long time so may just be feeling Poland out so they know what they can get away with before the incident escalates too far.
Russia is so fucking fucked. Unbelievable.
I wish, but the US still hasn’t sent Ukraine the much needed 60bn package due to political fighting, which is already affecting the forces on the ground. And if the orange buffoon becomes president again, it will only get worst.
Unfortunately Russia has the means to keep this going and make it worse for the Ukrainians, while Ukraine is entirely dependent on US and EU support (with the EU lagging behind).
Biden is not a saint, but I really hope he wins and grabs a majority needed to support Ukraine in the next few years, otherwise we risk Russia getting in a much better position, and the West losing all credibility.
Russia managed to subvert one of the major political parties in the US to do their bidding, so there are at least some things they’re good at.
Ambassador’s reply, “ARE YOU ASSHOLES TRYING TO GET ME TRIPPED OUT A WINDOW‽”
This is the best summary I could come up with:
WARSAW, Poland (AP) — The Russian ambassador to Poland did not show up Monday for a meeting at the Polish Foreign Ministry where he had been summoned because of a Russian cruise missile that violated Polish airspace on the weekend, the Polish ministry’s spokesman said.
Paweł Wroński, the Polish Foreign Ministry spokesman, told reporters in a brief statement outside the ministry that Andreev did not come to the meeting, and that his failure to appear has led the Warsaw government to wonder “whether he is able to properly represent the interests of the Russian Federation in Warsaw.”
Wroński said the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations “clearly defines the duties of an ambassador in a host state.”
The Polish Foreign Ministry had said it would “demand explanations” from Russia over the violation of its airspace — the latest of several incidents since Moscow launched its war against Ukraine more than two years ago.
Polish Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski informed NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg of details of the incident by phone on Monday, the ministry said in a statement.
Sikorski stressed that Russia’s war against Ukraine also threatens the security of NATO member states, the statement said.
The original article contains 231 words, the summary contains 196 words. Saved 15%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
