Poland expecting 20,000 Russians in Warsaw
Reuters - Thursday 14 June 2012, 19:57
Polish authorities expect 20,000
Russian fans to arrive in Warsaw with tickets for the Euro 2012
Group A match against Greece on Saturday, twice the number who
came for the game against Poland marred by hooligan violence.
Warsaw officials said there would be sufficient security to
protect fans and there would be no repeat of clashes on Tuesday
in which Polish hooligans fought Russians and police, forcing
officers to fire tear gas and rubber bullets to restore calm.
Police detained 184 people, 156 of them Poles and most of
the rest Russians, during hours of sporadic violence around the
stadium and close to a central fan viewing area.
Russian President Vladimir Putin told Poland's Prime
Minister Donald Tusk during a phone conversation on Wednesday
that Warsaw bore "full responsibility" for the safety of fans,
raising the stakes in events which have brought the nations'
troubled relationship to the fore.
"The security arrangements [at Saturday's match] will be
adequate for the risks," Interior Minister Jacek Cichocki said
in a radio interview.
The first sentences for the hooligans handed out by a Warsaw
court on Wednesday included suspended jail terms of up to 12
months and fines of 500 zlotys ($150).
That was greeted with derision by some Polish media, and
President Bronislaw Komorowski, while declining to comment on
Putin's demands, said the government must act to ensure tougher
sentences were imposed on hooligans.
"There is a turning point now... this is the moment when
Poland should implement sharper penalties in a move to free us
from fear," the President told broadcaster TVN24.
Putin advisor Mikhail Fiedetov told leading Polish
broadsheet Gazeta Wyborcza on Thursday he had suggested to
Poland's Interior Minister that June 12 become a day when both
national teams play a friendly match each year, to forget the
hooliganism.
FLASHPOINT
Nearly 40 judges at a court house - just a block away from
the city centre where 100,000 fans watched the match - presided
over ongoing hooliganism cases on Thursday.
The corridors were filled with often muscular, bald headed
men in sweatshirts along with policemen, many in plain clothes,
who made a large number of the arrests and were waiting to
testify.
Most of the accused were escorted into the courtroom in
handcuffs and bore signs they had recently been in fights,
including black eyes and scratched faces, with at least one
wearing a bloodied sweatshirt.
One taxi driver wearing a Poland team shirt with the
insignia of Legia Warsaw sewn on, admitted he threw a road sign
at the police, but said it was because he was intoxicated and
angry after Russia scored the first goal.
The trigger for Tuesday's trouble was a march across
Poniatowski bridge in central Warsaw by thousands of Russian
fans to commemorate Russia's Independence Day.
Warsaw deputy mayor Jacek Wojciechowicz told a news
conference Russian fans had not filed an application for another
march but the Poniatowski bridge was one of the designated
routes for fans to use to the stadium for any game.
"We will not dictate how fans should arrive to the stadium.
There are certain routes along which we are directing people
Fans can go in as big or as small a group as they like," he
said. "The city is prepared for all eventualities."
Many Russian fans did make their way peacefully to the
stadium in smaller groups on Tuesday. A Warsaw police spokesman
said they were monitoring social media for any sign of planned
trouble but he did not expect a repeat of the violence.
Unofficial estimates indicated that as many as 20,000
Russians were in the city during Tuesday's violence, many
without tickets for the game, suggesting the overall number
coming to Warsaw for the Greece game could be higher.
A UEFA ruling against Russia on Wednesday means the team
will be docked six points in qualifying for the next European
Championship if their fans step out of line again after earlier
disturbances at the tournament.
The ruling relates to incidents at Russia's opening Euro
2012 game against the Czech Republic last Friday where Russian
fans set off and threw fireworks and displayed illicit banners
at the match in Wroclaw which their team won 4-1.