Russian football supporter leader should apologise for 'Polish torture chambers' smear
PR dla Zagranicy
Peter Gentle
04.07.2012 10:22
A former Polish justice minister has said that the leader of a Russian football supporters association should apologise for using the words “Polish torture chambers” when describing how Russians are being kept in custody following violence at Euro 2012.
Krzysztof Kwiatkowski: photo - PR
“Alexander Shprygin should apologize for using the words "torture chambers". This term is associated with a prison, where the Gestapo kept Poles and Polish underground soldiers,” Krzysztof Kwiatkowski, justice minister between 2009 and 2001, told Polish Radio this morning.
Shprygin, who leads the All-Russian Supporters Association (WOB) told a press conference in Moscow, Tuesday, that detained Russians were being kept in “Polish torture chambers” following their arrest in Warsaw during violence before and after the Poland versus Russia Group A Euro 2012 match on 12 June.
When challenged by a Russian journalist if the use of the words “torture chambers” was appropriate – in Russia the words are associated with WW II Nazi prisons where POWs, including Russians, were kept, Shprygin said he was simply “calling a spade a spade.”
Kwaitkowski said Poland should issue a low-level diplomatic response - given Shprygin's low status as the head of a football supporters club - to the use of the words “torture chambers”.
Shprygin also said yesterday that he and Russian football supporters were shocked by the level of “Russophobia” in Poland. (pg)