MFA Statement
26.03.2020
On 26 March 2020, the Ambassador of the Russian Federation H.E. Sergey Andreyev was summoned to the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Speaking with the ambassador, the Director of MFA’s Eastern Department referred to a public statement by Russian senator Aleksey Pushkov who accused Poland of closing its airspace for Russian aircraft carrying medical aid to Italy.
The Polish side expressed its indignation with the absurd accusation made by the prominent Russian politician and underlined that spreading fake news which divide countries and societies is particularly reprehensible in the situation where our common goal should be fighting the unprecedented threat of a deadly pandemic that crosses any state borders.
Ambassador Sergey Andreyev was also informed about a letter by the Speaker of the Polish Sejm Elżbieta Witek to the Speaker of the Federation Council Valentina Matviyenko in which she called for disciplining senator Aleksey Pushkov and stressed the need to show solidarity in the face of a spreading pandemic.
Ambassador Andreyev noted that the authorities of the Russian Federation do not control the mass media, and they neither confirmed nor distributed the fake news. It had also been deleted from Twitter by senator Pushkov himself.
The Russian ambassador agreed that attempts to use the current situation in the political struggle hinder global efforts to stop COVID-19 and assured that the Russian Federation authorities are determined to participate in international cooperation to fight the current pandemic.
MFA Press Office
Fot. Tymon Markowski / MFA