Poland blames Russia for major Warsaw shopping centre fire last year
Many of the affected business owners were members of Warsaw’s Vietnamese community
Polish authorities accused Russian intelligence services on Sunday of orchestrating a fire that destroyed a large shopping centre last year in the capital of Warsaw.
Authorities immediately launched an investigation but had until now refrained from blaming Moscow.
“We now know for sure that the great fire of the Marywilska shopping centre in Warsaw was caused by arson ordered by the Russian special services,” said Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk on social media.
The justice and interior ministries said in a separate, joint statement on Sunday that some of the alleged perpetrators were already in custody, while others had been identified but still at large.
“Their actions were organised and directed by a specific person residing in the Russian Federation,” the two ministries said, adding that they were cooperating with Lithuania, “where some of the perpetrators also carried out acts of diversion”.