Zakharova called Warsaw's protest over the dismantling of bas-reliefs near Tver hypocritical.

Warsaw's accusations against the Russian Federation regarding the dismantling of the bas-reliefs of Polish military awards at the Mednoye memorial complex in the Tver Region look hypocritical. This was stated on May 27 by the official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova, answering a question from Izvestia about the department's reaction to the relevant note from Poland.

A representative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed that Russia had received an appeal from the Polish side in connection with the dismantling of the bas-reliefs.

"All these alleged protests look hypocritical. Do you know why? Because they have been consistently, systematically destroying monuments for many years, they do it with malicious intent, not by chance. It's not just individual vandals who do it. Even if extremist vandals are doing this, they are doing it with the explicit, somewhere unspoken permission of the authorities," the representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry stressed at a briefing.

Zakharova noted that Warsaw has been refusing for many years to comply with the agreements concluded with Russia. That is why the note of the Polish Foreign Ministry looks particularly cynical.

"The note mentions exactly the same bilateral documents regulating the preservation and care of graves, places of remembrance of victims of wars and repressions, which all these years have been referred to by representatives of Russia in our protest notes to the Polish side for numerous real reasons. And at the same time, Warsaw ignored all these appeals and, accordingly, the documents," the diplomat said.

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On May 16, the Mednoye Memorial Complex announced the dismantling of the bas-reliefs of Polish military awards at the Polish Military Cemetery, as they were installed in violation of the legislation of the Russian Federation. After that, Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski made an accusation of alleged vandalism against the Russian Federation. He also stated that the agency had sent a protest note to the Russian side.

On May 22, Zakharova called Sikorsky's words hypocritical. She noted that Warsaw should pay attention to its own territories, where several hundred Soviet and Russian military memorial sites have been destroyed, as well as acts of vandalism over preserved monuments to Soviet soldiers.