By Olha Hembik | 2025-06-25

WARSAW -- In Gdansk, where the Solidarity movement helped bring down the Communist regime in 1989, protesters are back in the streets -- this time demanding the closure of Russia's last functioning consulate in Poland.

The Polish government has ordered other Russian consulates to close, citing Russian hybrid warfare against the host country.

On June 14, demonstrators from several Polish civic groups, including Freedom and Peace, the Federation of Fighting Youth and the Alternative Society movement, joined former Solidarity activists to rally outside the Russian consulate in the Baltic port city, according to Radio Gdansk.

Ukrainian protesters from the group Zjednoczeni Gdańsk participated, pointing to the recent closures of Russian consulates in Poznan and Krakow as momentum.

Dasha Balabay, an activist and director of the Ukrainian Library in Gdansk, told Kontur the city "noticed that this is essentially the last Russian consulate in Poland that is not closed."

She cited Gdansk's coastal location and proximity to Kaliningrad, a Russian seaport with a naval base, as cause for concern.

"It is very dangerous to keep [the consulate] here," Balabay said, referring to the threat of sabotage. She added that Ukrainian activists have long pushed for its closure.

She pointed to what she described as provocations by Russian officials, including a May 9 appearance by consular personnel who laid flowers at a Soviet war monument. The gesture, she said, promoted Russia's revisionist narrative of the USSR as liberator.

Against the Russian world

Protesters held signs reading "Life is not the Russian world" and chanted "Go home!" at Russian diplomats. Organizers called the consulate a "quiet outpost of imperialism and contempt for international law."

They submitted a petition urging Polish authorities to shut down the Gdansk consulate, citing its proximity to Kaliningrad province, Russia; potential espionage threats and risks to Polish cultural heritage.

Local group leaders argued that Gdansk "cannot be the location of an official presence of a state committing war crimes [in Ukraine] and destroying the European peaceful order." The petition is set to go to the Foreign Ministry and Gdansk's mayor.

Malgorzata Tarasiewicz, director of the Polish branch of the Network of East-West Women and activist with the Freedom and Peace movement, called the consulate's presence "dangerous," pointing to Russia's war in Ukraine.

"It is not known whether any attack will occur. Given such hostile relations, it is not very good for Gdansk to have such an institution here," Tarasewicz told Zawsze Pomorze, a regional publication.

Fellow Freedom and Peace activist Dariusz Pieklo described the closure demand as a "preventive measure to prevent damage and sabotage."

"A consulate like this is also a center that launches operational propaganda," he told Radio Gdansk.

Summonses by email

It is "morally" justified to "make life difficult for the aggressor state and its citizens abroad," the Ukrainian House Foundation in Warsaw, which advocates for Ukrainian migrants and refugees, told Kontur.

Aleksandr Pestrikov, an analyst with the group, said Gdansk residents see the consulate's closure as a matter of public safety. "Under the cover of a diplomatic institution," Russia could conduct sabotage, terrorism, espionage or propaganda to destabilize Polish society and fuel anti-Ukrainian sentiment, he told Kontur.

He cited a Rzeczpospolita investigation that revealed ties between Russian diplomats and far-right Polish politicians critical of Ukrainian refugees.

These concerns are not unfounded. Ukrainian activists feel pressure from Russian diplomats even in Poland, said Balabay. Some activists have received emailed summonses to appear in Russian court. One activist received instructions to collect her summons at the consulate.

"Obviously, she didn't go," Balabay said of one recipient.

At pro-Ukrainian rallies, she noted, a group of Polish-speaking women regularly show up to provoke and monitor demonstrators.

"They monitor everything, don't go far away, and know what they are being paid for," she said, alleging the counter-protesters are paid.

She added that when protests take place outside the consulate, "photos are taken from behind the window," a tactic she says is used to build dossiers on activists.

'Sitting for too long'

International relations scholar Stanislav Zhelikhovsky told Kontur the Russian consulate "has been sitting in this special city for too long," referring to Gdansk's legacy as a symbol of Polish freedom.

He described the push to shut it down as both "a historical reference and a moral position," noting that members of all generations are uniting against Russia's presence, even at the diplomatic level.

Zhelikhovsky said such protests carry political weight by pressuring Russian diplomatic missions and signaling to allies that Polish society "is prepared to resist and will not tolerate Russia's presence on its territory."

While the Russian embassy in Warsaw is unlikely to close, he added, the Gdansk consulate remains a plausible target.

"There is currently a tendency to reduce the number of such [Russian] institutions both in Poland and in other countries," Zhelikhovsky said, adding that this is another way to fight Russia. "If this is not done, [Russia] will see that her diplomatic missions are functioning normally."

The Ukrainian House Foundation, however, is more cautious about the timing. Pestrikov said it does not expect the Gdansk consulate to close soon -- "unless, of course, Russia or its diplomats give a reason for this."

He added that "reciprocal actions," not moral arguments, are likely to determine the outcome. As an example, he pointed to Russia's removal of bronze crosses from a cemetery for Polish officers in Mednoye, Russia, after Poland compelled it to close consulates in Poznan and Krakow.

The Poles buried in the cemetery were murdered in 1940 on Joseph Stalin's orders.