RIA Novosti: Polish President Apologizes for Attack on Russian Embassy

WARSAW, November 13 (RIA Novosti) ­ The president of Poland apologized to Russia on Wednesday for the attack by a nationalist mob on the Russian Embassy in Warsaw, calling the episode outrageous and unjustifiable.

“We need to apologize on behalf of the Polish state,” President Bronislaw Komorowski told privately owned broadcaster Radio Zet.

Thousands of people paraded through Warsaw on Monday to mark the 1918 reunification of Poland after more than a century of being partitioned by Russia, Prussia and Austria.

A crowd of youths splintered away from the previously approved route and attacked the Russian Embassy, pelting it with rocks and firecrackers and setting alight the guards’ booth.

Moscow called for an immediate apology from Poland and demanded that Warsaw pay for the damages and ensure that those responsible were brought to justice.

The incident in Warsaw drew an immediate reaction in Moscow, where a group of young men threw firecrackers and smoke pellets at the Polish Embassy.

Three men have been detained by Russian police.

Unregistered nationalist opposition party The Other Russia, which claimed responsibility for the attack, said in a statement that their actions were intended to show that “Russia should be treated with respect.”

Russian authorities have not yet commented on the incident in Moscow.