Gang war threatens Russia and Poland's diplomatic peace

MOSCOW - Russia and Poland are on the brink of a serious crisis in their relations after accusations that a Moscow gang of nationalists were "hunting" Poles in the city to dole out punishment beatings.

The attacks are thought to be revenge for an assault on three Russian teenagers in a Warsaw park at the end of July, an event which saw 15 Polish skinheads viciously beat the trio and steal their mobile phones.

The three teenagers belonged to Russian diplomats and Moscow claimed their attackers shouted anti-Russian slogans and blamed Polish politicians for voicing anti-Russian sentiment too frequently and too vocally.

Unusually the attack attracted the attention of President Vladimir Putin who said it was "an unfriendly act that cannot be characterised as anything other than a crime."

Russian nationalists' response has been less measured.

Three Polish nationals have been beaten on Moscow's streets in the past week and the embassy pelted with rotten tomatoes and paint.

The first victim, Marek Reszuta, is a second secretary at the embassy, the second Andrzej Uriadko, a technical worker at the embassy, and the third, Pawel Reszka, a Polish journalist.

In all three cases the scenario was the same. A group of five or six well built men hit the victim on the head knocking him to the ground before "professionally" kicking and punching him.

All three attacks were unprovoked and often began with an apparently innocent request for a cigarette. All three were so badly beaten that they had to be hospitalised.

Yesterday Polish President Alexander Kwasniewski appealed to Mr Putin to put an end to the "well-planned" attacks and protect Polish nationals as relations between the two countries, never the best of friends to begin with, slipped towards the abyss.

"The attacks seem to be organised and directed towards accredited representatives of the Polish diplomatic mission and media," he said.

"These dangerous incidents have increased tensions in Polish-Russian relations and escalated feelings of enmity."

Russia has expressed its "deep regret" at the attacks and vowed to do everything in its power to find and punish the gang. Russian-supplied security at the Polish embassy has been substantially beefed up.

Ordinary Russians appear to have little sympathy with the attackers. A poll on Ekho Moskvy radio station yesterday found that 75 per cent of respondents felt "shame" that Poles were being targeted for punishment beatings.

However a similar survey on the website of nationalist newspaper Zavtra asking readers which of 12 nationalities they would most sympathise with "if beaten up on a street somewhere in Russia" drew a somewhat different response. Only 37 out of the 744 people who responded named Poles putting them just ahead of Chechens who got 36 votes.

Indeed there is a long history of mutual enmity between the two countries which dates back some 400 years.

Moscow liberated itself from the Polish-Lithuanian republic in 1612 only to occupy Poland in its Soviet guise from the end of the second world war until 1991.

- THE INDEPENDENT