Poland Claims Expelled Russian Diplomat Spread Coronavirus in Country

KRAKOW, POLAND - JANUARY 25: Health workers wear protective face masks and gloves as they
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Polish government officials accused a recently expelled Russian diplomat this week of failing to self-isolate after testing positive for the Chinese coronavirus in January.

Igor Oshchepkov, who was stationed as a Russian consul in the western Polish city of Poznan, tested positive for coronavirus on January 21, according to Poland’s TVP state broadcaster.

“Despite receiving information about the coronavirus infection, the consul did not comply with sanitary rules,” Stanislaw Zaryn, a spokesman for the head of Poland’s security services, told the state-run Polish Press Agency on Wednesday.

Oshchepkov allegedly “took part in meetings and appeared in public places, putting the lives of other people in danger,” according to Zaryn.

Poland’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs expelled Oshchepkov on February 8 and he left the country on February 20. The dismissal was part of a wider expulsion of Russian diplomats by Poland, Germany, and Sweden in February in retaliation for Moscow’s request that the three countries’ respective diplomats in Russia leave the country for allegedly participating in unauthorized anti-Kremlin rallies in January.

“The Swedish, German, and Polish diplomats who took part in unauthorized protest rallies in Moscow and St. Petersburg on January 23 are expelled from the country. Representatives of these countries’ embassies were summoned to the Russian [foreign] ministry and handed notes of protest,” Russia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on February 5.

Citing Moscow’s “unfounded recognition” of a Polish diplomat in Russia as “persona non grata” on February 5, Poland’s foreign ministry, “guided by the principle of reciprocity, considered an employee of the General Consulate of the Russian Federation in Poznań to be persona non grata,” the ministry said in a February 8 statement.

“The activities of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Poland were undertaken in close coordination with the authorities of the Federal Republic of Germany and the Kingdom of Sweden, whose diplomatic representatives were also groundlessly considered personae non gratae by the authorities of the [Russian Federation],” the statement further read.

Albania expelled a Russian diplomat on January 22 for allegedly violating the country’s anti-coronavirus measures.

“The Albanian government has declared Russian diplomat Alexei Krivosheyev, who was not following the anti-coronavirus measures, persona non grata, mandating that he leave the country within 72 hours from the official announcement,” Albania’s foreign ministry said in a statement. The ministry said Krivosheyev had breached Albania’s state-mandated coronavirus health protocols since April 2020.

Russia currently has the fourth-highest coronavirus caseload in the world. The country, home to nearly 145 million people, has officially recorded 4,311,893 cases and 89,224 deaths from the Chinese coronavirus. Some observers believe Russia’s true number of cases to be much higher than officially reported, however, citing the Kremlin’s alleged attempts to obfuscate the severity of Russia’s domestic coronavirus outbreak.

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