Maciej Wewiór told Poland's PAP news agency that the closure of the Irkutsk consulate by Russia had been "expected" by Poland.
Earlier on Thursday, Russia's foreign ministry summoned Poland's ambassador Krzysztof Krajewski and announced the closure of the Polish Consulate General in Irkutsk, effective December 30.
Russia said the move had been in response to Poland's decision to withdraw permission for the Russian consulate in Gdańsk to operate.
Polish Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski announced the decision on November 19. The Russian consulate in Gdańsk must close by midnight on December 23, and its staff are required to leave Poland.
Sikorski said on November 19 that the decision to shut Russia's last remaining consulate in Poland came following sabotage attacks on the railway network a few days earlier, which prosecutors say were carried out by Ukrainian citizens acting on behalf of Russian intelligence.
Wewiór told reporters on Thursday that "the closure of the Russian consulate in Poland is in fact the effect of a terrorist act carried out on Polish territory."
He added that Russia's closure of the Polish Consulate General in Irkutsk was "a retaliatory move that had been expected."
The foreign ministry spokesman said that Poland's Irkutsk consulate must close effective December 30, and all its staff are required to leave Russian territory.
Wewiór added that as of the new year, the duties of the three staffers would be "taken over by Poland's consular department in Moscow."
Rail sabotage
Polish officials say an explosive device destroyed a section of track on the Warsaw-Lublin rail line near the village of Mika over the weekend of November 15-16. The route is a key corridor for transporting Western aid to Ukraine.
In a separate incident on the same line, a train carrying 475 passengers made an emergency stop near the town of Puławy on November 16, after track damage was detected.
No injuries were reported, and the government launched a wide-ranging investigation. Officials said Poland was working with "allied security services" to track down the suspects and bring them to justice.
Prime Minister Donald Tusk said last week that authorities had identified two Ukrainian men working for Russian intelligence as suspects in the sabotage.
The suspects, named as Volodymyr B. and Yevhenii I., have left Poland and fled to Belarus, a close ally of Moscow, Tusk added.
Polish prosecutors said this week they had charged a third individual "in connection with sabotage on Poland's railway infrastructure."
The suspect, identified only as Volodymyr B., was accused of aiding and abetting acts of sabotage carried out on November 15-16, the National Prosecutor’s Office said on Monday.
The Washington-based Institute for the Study of War (ISW) said last week that the sabotage attacks on Poland's rail network were part of Russia's intensifying campaign to destabilize Europe.
(pm/gs)
Source PAP, IAR