Polish Sejm fails to vote for recognition of Russia as sponsor of terrorism

Poland's Sejm failed to pass a resolution recognizing Russia as a state sponsor of terrorism.

It was prevented by an amendment introduced by the ruling party, the adoption of which was blocked by the opposition, PAP reports.

It is known that the draft resolution on recognizing Russia as a state sponsor of terrorism was filed by the "Left" and "PiS" factions. The Committee on Foreign Affairs worked on the drafts.

Thus, on December 1, the Sejm was to vote for a resolution on the recognition of Russia as a state that supports terrorism. During the evening debate before the vote, clubs and circles were unanimous in their support of the resolution. During the debate, an amendment from PiS was filed into the draft, which was objected to by the opposition.

"The Russian Federation is directly responsible for the July 2014 downing of Malaysian Airlines Flight MH17, which killed 298 passengers and crew members, and for the crash of Polish Air Force Flight 101 in Smolensk, Russia, in April, which killed 96 people on board, including Polish President Lech Kaczynski, Polish officials, high-ranking Polish military and military commanders of NATO member states, and members of the Polish parliament," the amendment stated.

Before the resolution was voted on, the opposition asked for a recess on the amendment. Pawel Kowal, the deputy rapporteur of the Foreign Affairs Committee, said the amendment "destroys the compromise" made in the committee.

A vote was then taken in favor of the ordinance amendment. 226 deputies voted, 225 in favor, 0 against, and one abstention. However, the opposition did not participate in the vote, so there was no quorum.

Opposition deputies demanded to put to vote the resolution, adopted by the committee, and from the opposition rostrum they shouted: "Russian agents!" The Speaker of the Seim summed up that this was "one big scandal" and ordered to proceed to the next vote.

"We can't vote for the resolution because you pulled the cards, there is no solution," announced Sejm Speaker Elzbieta Witek.

It is not yet known when the Polish Seim might return to reconsider the resolution.