People often cooperate with Russia unaware that they are being recruited, Bartosz Cichocki, former Polish ambassador in Kiev, told PAP. In recent months, the Internal Security Agency has detained 55 people in Poland suspected of collaborating with Russian services, said Jacek Dobrzyński, spokesman for the coordinator of the secret services.
Donald Tusk announced on Tuesday the detention of eight people suspected of preparing acts of sabotage. “The Internal Security Agency, in cooperation with other services, has recently detained eight people in various parts of the country, suspected of preparing acts of sabotage. The case is under development. Further operational activities are underway,” the Prime Minister wrote on the X platform.
People in the service of subversion
The detained people are mostly foreigners from across the eastern border. Their activities included conducting intelligence and preparing acts of sabotage and sabotage in the country. The most important target of sabotage activities was critical infrastructure, including railway routes, crucial for arms and humanitarian aid transports heading to Ukraine.
As Bartosz Cichocki, former ambassador of the Republic of Poland in Kiev, explained, By recruiting people to cooperate, Russia is simply taking advantage of the opportunities that are open to it.
– We have very serious tensions in the Western world, a conflict between anti-systemic and systemic forces. This is accompanied by a decline in trust in traditional politics and the mass media. Russia, and not only Russia, benefits from this socio-intellectual confusion by catching lost, rebellious or desperate people on the Internet – explained the PAP interlocutor.
Cichocki added that he remembers cases from Ukraine when people started cooperation without being aware that there were Russians on the other side. – The motivation was very different: someone couldn't survive until the next morning or had debts, someone else was afraid of disclosing compromising information, someone else got into a conflict with a Polish, Ukrainian or Georgian neighbor or was abandoned by a girl and, driven by emotions, wanted to get back at him, explained Cichocki. Russia managed to get such people to cooperate without even paying them, he added.
The ambassador pointed out that In Ukraine, there were cases where people, literally for the equivalent of a dozen or several dozen zlotys, undertook tasks such as photographing a military transport, putting up leaflets, setting fire to the replenishment command or marking the geolocation of an energy installation.
The PAP interlocutor assessed that first in Georgia, and then in Ukraine, the Russians had a training ground, which they now use in Poland and will use in other countries.
This is how Russia spreads chaos
In his opinion, Russia wants to sow confusion and doubt in the resilience of our countries, strengthen the belief in the incompetence of the services, and sometimes, as in 2014 in Vrbetice, Czech Republic, where an ammunition warehouse was blown up, reduce the defense capabilities of countries it considers adversaries.
As Bartosz Cichocki pointed out, Russia is trying to show us that we have to pay a price for supporting Ukraine.
– I think we should learn from Ukrainians how to reverse it. How to sow uncertainty and doubt in Russians about their authorities. Of course, within the framework of international law. Valery Zaluzhny, the Ukrainian ambassador to Great Britain and former commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian armed forces, writes about this in an article published by the Eastern Flank Institute – emphasized the ambassador and added that the Ukrainian general states there, among other things, that we are waging war with the hands of an attacked neighbor. Without our intelligence, guidance systems and unmanned technologies, this war would be very different.
The scale is larger than we think
As another PAP interlocutor argued, prof. Tomasz Safjański, deputy director of the Center for Research on Cross-Border Security of the WSB University, the scale of sabotage activities inspired by Russia in Europe is greater than reported in the mass media.
– From the studies I conducted at the Fire Academy in Warsaw, under the supervision of prof. Bernard Wiśniewski, pilot studies show that after 2022, there will be 48 cases of arson in Europe related to the Russian Federation. As many as 12 of them in Poland, the same number in Great Britain, 11 in Germany, two each in Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia – mentioned Prof. Safjański and emphasized that we were only talking about acts of sabotage involving causing a fire.
As the expert noted, this effect can be achieved not only by using explosives – in some cases, cutting certain installations was enough to cause a fire.
PAP asked prof. Safjański, what to do and what not to do in connection with the growing threat of sabotage. In his opinion, first of all, we cannot succumb to disinformation. If we are concerned about something, we must confront our doubts with official sources of information. Preferably public ones.
The expert drew attention to the fact that zsabotage threats related to Russia's actions are non-obvious, which means they can materialize at any time and in any place. Therefore, as he emphasized, we must be careful and pay attention to unusual situations. For example, we should refrain from being helpful if a random person asks us to move a load or store a package.
The PAP interlocutor emphasized that if necessary, the police should be informed, and not other services. – She will know where to pass the information on – argued Prof. Safian.
This is how Moscow works
Sabotage activities carried out on behalf of Moscow in Poland took various forms. For example, in August 2023, two Russians were detained who posted several thousand leaflets in Krakow and Warsaw encouraging people to sign a contract with the Wagner Group (a private military company founded by Yevgeny Prigozhin, carrying out military activities on behalf of the Kremlin and conducting influence operations in various parts of the world – PAP).
At the end of July last year Russian activist Igor R. was detained in Katowice, who was allegedly organizing the transfer of a package with explosives from the Czech capital to Ukraine. His wife, Iryna R., was also charged with espionage.
October 16 this year The Internal Security Agency, in cooperation with the Romanian services (SRI), detained Danyla H. – a 21-year-old Ukrainian citizen who, at the request of the Russian services, organized the work of a group transporting explosives through Poland and Romania to Ukraine. At the same time, two other Ukrainian citizens cooperating with the suspect were detained in Romania.
In May last year a fire destroyed the Marywilska 44 Shopping Center in Warsaw. A month earlier, also in Warsaw, the OBI DIY hypermarket at Radzymińska 166 was set on fire. A similar event also took place in Vilnius, where in May 2024 an IKEA store caught fire.
The Internal Security Agency and the National Prosecutor's Office determined that the series of fires was the result of sabotage ordered by Russian intelligence, and the entire operation was coordinated remotely by a person in Russia.
During the investigation, the following people were arrested and charged with, among others: Ukrainian citizens, Daniil B. and Oleksandr H., who were responsible for the construction and remote use of the detonators. As it was established, Oleksandr V., who was supervising the operation from Russian territory, ordered the fire on Marywilskaya to be filmed and then publish the material on propaganda websites.
In March 2023, the Internal Security Agency dismantled the largest sabotage network operating on behalf of Russian military intelligence (GRU) in Poland. 16 foreigners were detained. The group included, among others: citizens of Ukraine, Belarus (two students) and a Russian (hockey player playing in the Silesian team).
It was established that the group had been operating since at least January 2023 near key logistics hubs (including Przemyśl, Rzeszów). Its members were to conduct reconnaissance of critical infrastructure, monitor military transports and prepare for the derailment of aid trains for Ukraine. They received orders from Moscow remotely and were paid in cryptocurrencies.
Polish services decided that the risk of attacks was too high to continue monitoring the group and it was decided to immediately arrest its members. All defendants pleaded guilty. Some of them have applied for asylum in Poland, trying to avoid deportation to their countries of origin. (PAP)
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