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In May, Poland ordered Russia’s consulate in Krakow to shut after accusations Moscow orchestrated fire at Warsaw shopping centre.

Russia says it will close Poland’s consulate in Kaliningrad, a Russian exclave between Poland and Lithuania, after Warsaw decided to shut down the Russian consulate in Krakow.

The Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced the move on Friday.

This follows Poland ordering the Russian consulate in the southern city of Krakow to shut in May after authorities accused Moscow of orchestrating a fire that destroyed a Warsaw shopping centre last year.

The May 12, 2024, arson destroyed more than 1,000 shops at the Marywilska 44 centre, but no one was injured.

Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski accused Russian special services of involvement, saying there was evidence they had committed a “reprehensible act of sabotage” against the centre. Russia denied any involvement in the attack.

In May, Russia promised an “adequate response” to Poland’s move, and on Friday, the Foreign Ministry said it was “withdrawing consent for the functioning of the Consulate General of Poland in Kaliningrad from August 29”.

It also said Poland’s charge d’affaires in Russia was summoned and handed a formal note announcing the move, citing “unfriendly” and “unjustified” actions by the Polish government.

“This step was caused by the unfounded and hostile actions of the Polish side, expressed in the reduction of the Russian consular presence on the territory of Poland,” it added.

Strained ties

Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Pawel Wronski said Russia’s decision to close the consulate was unjustified.

The possibility of this decision “was taken into account by the Foreign Ministry”, he told reporters on Friday. But he added that this “doesn’t mean that it is a legitimate decision”.

“Unlike Russia, Poland does not engage in sabotage, cyberattacks or conduct actions against the Russian state,” he said.

He added that Poland would “respond adequately” to the decision, without elaborating.

Diplomatic ties between Moscow and Warsaw have been historically strained and have frayed further over Russia’s war in Ukraine.

Poland, a NATO and European Union member, is one of the main countries through which Western nations supply weapons and ammunition to Kyiv.

In May 2024, Poland imposed restrictions on the movements of Russian diplomats on its soil due to Moscow’s “involvement” in what it called a “hybrid war”.

Poland later ordered the closure of Russia’s consulate in Poznan and said it was willing to close the other consulates if acts of “terrorism” continued.

In January, Russia closed the Polish consulate in St Petersburg in retaliation.

Apart from the embassies, both countries now only have one consulate left on their respective territories.

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia — Cambodia escalated its cold war with Thailand on Friday when it announced a ban on Thai movies and TV shows and a boycott of the neighboring country’s international internet links.

Tensions between the Southeast Asian countries have soared since an armed confrontation in a border area on May 28 that each side blamed on the other and which left one Cambodian soldier dead.

Cambodian officials said the import and screenings of Thai movies would be banned, and that broadcasters would be ordered not to air Thai-produced shows, which include popular soap operas. The government said it would inflict a financial blow on Thailand by rerouting its international internet traffic through other countries instead.

Cambodian and Thai authorities engaged in saber-rattling last week, though they have since walked back much of their earlier statements emphasizing their right to take military action.

But they continue to implement or threaten measures short of armed force, keeping tensions high. Thailand has added restrictions at border crossings. Much of their war of words actually has appeared intended to mollify nationalistic critics on their own sides.

The confrontation reportedly took place in a relatively small “no man’s land” constituting territory along their border that both countries claim is theirs.

The area is closed to journalists, but it appears that both sides withdrew soon after the fatal confrontation to avoid further clashes, without explicitly conceding the fact in order to save face.

“Neither side wants to use the word ‘withdraw’. We say ‘adjust troop deployments’ as a gesture of mutual respect—this applies to both Cambodia and Thailand.” Thai Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra was quoted telling reporters this past week.

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet said Friday on the Telegram social network that his government would act preemptively to establish self-reliance in response to exhortations by Thai nationalists to cut off electricity and internet connectivity to Cambodia.

Camboia’s Minister of Post and Telecommunication Chea Vandeth announced on his Facebook page that “all telecommunications operators in Cambodia have now disconnected all cross-border internet links with Thailand,” and that the move would deprive Thailand of as much as hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue, a claim that could not be immediately checked.

The reported move to use circuits bypassing Thailand temporarily disrupted internet connectivity for users of at least one Cambodian service provider.

Thai officials said any plans to cut services to Cambodia were unrelated to the territorial conflict and would actually be targeting the infamous online scam centers in the Cambodian border town of Poipet that have been a problem for several years.

Cambodia’s Ministry of Fine Arts meanwhile informed all film distributors and cinemas owners that starting Friday, the import and screening of all Thai films must be immediately suspended.

Som Chhaya, deputy director general of a popular Cambodian TV channel, People Nation Network, told The Associated Press that his company will comply with another government order to drop Thai-produced shows, and in their place broadcast Chinese, Korean or Cambodian dramas.

Thai films and TV shows have a large audience in Cambodia.

Friday’s actions in Cambodia were taken one day ahead of a planned meeting in the capital Phnom Penh of the two countries’ Joint Commission on Demarcation for Land Boundary to help resolve the conflicting territorial claims that led to last month’s deadly confrontation.

There is a long history to their territorial disputes, Thailand is still rankled by a 1962 ruling by the International Court of Justice in The Hague, Netherlands that awarded to Cambodia the disputed territory where the historic Preah Vihear temple stands. There were sporadic though serious clashes there in 2011, and the ruling was reaffirmed in 2023.

Cheang writes for the Associated Press.