Russia closes Polish consulate in Kaliningrad in tit-for-tat diplomatic row

Moscow ordered the closure Friday of Poland’s Consulate in the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad in a tit-for-tat move as relations between the countries remain strained over a Warsaw fire that Poland alleges was Russian sabotage.

Russia’s Foreign Ministry said the latest closure was retaliation for Poland’s decision in May 2025 to close the Russian Consulate in Krakow. “No unfriendly attack against our country will remain without an appropriate reaction and consequences,” the Russian agency said.

Reacting to the closure, Poland’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Pavel Vronsky said that Moscow’s decision “was calculated, but this does not mean that it was correct,” Polish news agency PAP reported.

Poland shuttered the Russian Consulate in Krakow in response to a blaze at a Warsaw shopping center that Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk has said was arson commissioned by Russian security services.

Noone was killed in the May 12, 2024 fire at the Marywilska 44 shopping center, but it destroyed a marketplace of 1,400 shops and service points, with many of the vendors from Warsaw’s Vietnamese community.

Russia has denied its involvement in the Marywilska fire and other acts of sabotage in Poland that Warsaw officials have attributed to Moscow.

Poland last year ordered the closure of the Russian Consulate in Poznan, in response to acts of sabotage, including arson attacks, that officials said were sponsored by Moscow.

The latest closure leaves only one Russian Consulate in Poland, in the city of Gdansk.

Russian and Polish relations have soured since Moscow invaded Ukraine in February 2024, with Warsaw staunchly supporting Kyiv and providing aid.

There also have been rising concerns that Russia is trying to destabilize Europe through covert operations across the continent.

On Tuesday a British jury convicted three men of arson in an attack on an east London warehouse that was storing equipment destined for Ukraine. Authorities said Russian intelligence was behind the plot.

Countries along NATO’s eastern flank, like Poland and the Baltic states, feel especially vulnerable. In March, Lithuania accused Russia of carrying out an arson attack at an IKEA store in the capital, Vilnius, last year.