No coal from Russia is arriving in Poland says minister
No Russian coal is getting into Poland the Polish state assets minister said on Wednesday.
Jacek Sasin's comments came in response to a statement made by Senator Krzysztof Brejza from Poland's main opposition grouping, the Civic Coalition (KO), who said earlier in the day that "over the last year, 1.5 million tonnes of coal from Russia entered Poland."
Russian coal imports were banned last year by legislation introduced in response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Despite this there have been allegations that some coal is still getting into Poland.
"There are no imports of coal from Russia," said Sasin. "Senator Brejza is a person well-known for his announcements of pseudo-scandals, and this is also the case here.
"State Treasury companies are not importing any coal at all from abroad right now, because the wave of imports, which was related to the crisis last winter and to the embargo on Russian coal, has ended," said Sasin. "At that time there were no imports of coal from Russia… and coal that did arrive in Poland came from completely different directions, so there is absolutely no scandal here."
Sasin said that each batch of coal that was imported to Poland had been verified thoroughly by the National Revenue Administration.
"Not only are documents checked that prove the origin of this coal and which country this coal comes from, but the composition of the coal is also examined…" Sasin said. "These tests would have definitely indicated if any Russian coal had entered Poland."
