Before dowsing himself in a flammable solvent, Siwiec had distributed protest leaflets, and held a banner saying “For our freedom and yours.” In the days that followed, any news on the incident was censored and the secret police spread rumours that the 57-year-old accountant was drunk and mentally unstable in an effort to discredit him.
Polish PM Mateusz Morawiecki said on Thursday that "the current Russian authorities have been trying to rebuild the Stalinist-era version of history." Morawiecki said this in Prague where he was attending a Visegrad Group meeting with the Austrian chancellor.
Film of the incident shows him walking around engulfed in fire as members of the public try to beat out of the flames.
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