Poland to Investigate Russian and Belarusian Influence on the Country's Politics Over the Past 20 years

A commission to investigate Russian and Belarusian influence on the country's political life in 2004-2024 has been set up in Poland, and the first results of its work will be known in two months. This was announced by Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk during a joint press conference with members of the Polish government and the chairman of the commission on Tuesday in Warsaw, Ukrinform reports.

‘The commission will start its work today,’ Tusk said.

According to him, this 12-member commission should inform the state authorities and public opinion in the country about the real threats from Russia and Belarus, both in the past and today.

‘We already know for sure that these two countries and their intelligence services are the most active in Poland,’ Tusk said.

According to him, the first results of the commission will be known in two months.

Tomasz Siemoniak, Minister-Coordinator for Intelligence Services of Poland, said that many cases that need to be clarified have been raised in the public domain. For example, the record supply of Russian coal to Poland under the previous Polish government, the ‘strange’ career development of Krzysztof Gaj, a pro-Russian military officer who was an advisor to the previous government, or the leaked emails of the former head of the Polish Council of Ministers' Office, Michał Dworczyk.

The head of the commission, the current head of Poland's military counter-intelligence service, Jaroslaw Stryjuk, stressed that the group will be divided into subgroups that will deal with Russian and Belarusian influences on the country's economy, security and media. The commission members will involve external experts, including representatives of NGOs and the media, in the work of the commission.

As reported, in early May, Tomasz Schmidt, a judge of the Voivodeship Administrative Court in Warsaw, applied for political asylum in Belarus. He explained his decision, in particular, by disagreeing with Warsaw's policy towards Belarus and Russia.

The Polish National Prosecutor's Office opened an investigation into Schmidt under the article on working for foreign intelligence. Poland subsequently put Schmidt on the wanted list.

Since the beginning of the year, 10 people have been detained in Poland for committing or preparing acts of sabotage and subversion, allegedly in the interests of Russia, and the number of detainees has reached 18 since December last year.