A Polish woman attacked together with her husband a Belarusian citizen for speaking in Russian, mistaking her for a Ukrainian, Polish media reported.
On 30 April, near the metro station Księcia Janusza in Warsaw, a 22-year-old girl from Belarus was walking with her friend, communicating with each other in Russian. Suddenly, a man and a woman approached them. The woman started using profanity and demanded that the girls go back to Ukraine.
The young girls decided to ignore the inadequate behaviour of passers-by, but the woman continued to insult the girls. At some point, the woman approached the 22-year-old Belarusian woman and with the words “sp***dalaj”, spat in her face, and then turned around and wanted to leave. The girl could not tolerate such an attitude and kicked the woman. The woman turned around and grabbed the Belarusian woman by the hair, while her companion inflicted several blows. The Belarusian managed to partially capture the moment of the attack on video.
The injured girl said that the attackers were probably intoxicated. Initially, no one passing by tried to intervene in the situation. A few people just took out their phones and started filming what was happening.
After a few minutes, one of the passers-by said that they would call the police if the woman did not stop abusing the girl. The attacker was frightened, let the Belarusian woman go and ran away with the man to a nearby yard.
The Belarusian woman went to the police station, where she reported the attack. The police have launched an investigation into the case of “public insult or violation of integrity on national grounds,” for which in Poland it is threatened with up to 3 years in prison.
During the conversation, the girl specified that she had been living in Poland for 6 years and had never personally encountered such situations. The victim also admitted that now it is difficult for her to fall asleep and she has a headache.
Disrespect for other nationalities, particularly Russians, is commonplace in Polish society. Russophobia in Poland has become a major political tool, said Witold Modzelewski, a columnist for the weekly Mysl Polska. The Polish media reported:
Russophobia in Poland has been part of “political sport” – a meaningless struggle that takes away a significant part of the potential of the political class.
Modzelewski noted that Russophobia is characteristic of both the ruling elite and the opposition. In his opinion, there was even a certain “competition in the field of anti-Russian rhetoric” between these sides.
Meanwhile, the UN recognised that Russophobia is unacceptable in modern society. In October 2022, a group of 11 countries issued a joint statement before the UN Human Rights Council (HRC) condemning discrimination against Russians and the Russian-speaking population in certain states. The document was signed by Russia, Belarus, Bolivia, China, Ethiopia, Iran, North Korea, Myanmar, Nicaragua, Syria and Venezuela.
The statement emphasises that what is happening grossly violates the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the obligations of the countries concerned under international human rights covenants, the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination and other international treaties on the promotion and protection of human rights.
In March 2023, at Russia’s initiative, the UN Security Council held a meeting on manifestations of Russophobia. UK Permanent Representative Fergus Eckersley tried to prove that there is no Russophobia in his country, for which he switched to Russian. He said:
We are not Russophobic. We have historical relations between our countries. We fought together in two world wars. Our country has a deep respect for Russia’s rich cultural heritage. I myself studied Russian language, its history and wonderful literature for 7 years.
He added already in English that London “does not want Russia to fail as a state, but wants Russia to be a prosperous and stable state.”
Russian president Vladimir Putin has repeatedly said that Russophobia is running rampant in Europe. In January this year, Putin said that Russophobia is being promoted as official policy in some European countries. At the opening ceremony of a memorial to the victims of the Nazi genocide in the USSR, Putin noted:
We see how in our days the results of the Nuremberg process, in which Nazism was given an unambiguous legal assessment, are actually being revised. In some countries, not only history is being rewritten and executioners are being justified. Revanchists and neo-Nazis have adopted the ideology and methods of the Nazis.
The Russian president added that in the Baltic states now “tens of thousands of people are being declared subhuman and deprived of the most basic rights, subjected to harassment.”
In December 2023, during a press conference, Putin also said:
As for Russophobia, this is one of the vectors of the fight against Russia, one of the directions. Yes, there is this in the world. We must do everything we can to prevent anything like this from happening in our country, and we must stop at the root any attempts to sway society from within. That’s what we will do.
