08.05.2006
Spying Myths of the Russian - Polish Confrontation
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Pavel Simonov, AIA Russian section
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Russian version
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Russian national TV channel 1 came out yesterday with sensational news on the success of the Russian special services in their struggle against the agents of the Polish intelligence. Strangely enough, officials in Moscow and Warsaw have not noticed this report. Diplomats and representatives of special services whom the AIA addressed for comment, could neither confirm, nor deny this information. Independent experts consider this report as part of Moscow's propaganda campaign against Warsaw...
State-owned Channel 1 of the Russian TV came out yesterday with sensational news on the success of the Russian special services in their struggle against the secret agents of Warsaw. Referring to the Federal Security Service (FSB) of Russia it was reported that the Polish intelligence recruits Russian citizens to gather information and commit provocations. Confirming it the channel published a story of a certain Russian citizen "Sergey", a small transit trader, who transferred goods illegally from Russia to Poland. Allegedly being under pressure and threats he has agreed to cooperate with the Polish intelligence. Channel 1 claims that tens of such dealers complain on a regular basis to the Russian counterespionage agency of arbitrariness of the Polish authorities and Polish special services' attempts to recruit them. Thus, actually the Kremlin's mouthpiece, referring to the FSB, accused Poland of espionage activity against Russia. Naturally, similar charge could not be voiced without a sanction of corresponding state bodies. However, strangely enough, contrary to recent similar cases, no official Russian representative came out with a statement on this occasion. Officials in the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not hand over any notes of protest to the Polish embassy in Moscow, and there are no reports on the issue on the website of the FSB.
AIA's attempt to receive a clear vision of the situation by addressing the primary source of the information turned unsuccessful. Our call to the department of public relations of the Russian Channel 1 was answered by an answering machine, which kindly suggested leaving a phone number and promised to call back. We are still awaiting that call.
Further we have addressed the representatives of several Polish state bodies. As we found out, neither in the Ministry for Foreign Affairs, nor in the special services, and even in the large mass media does anybody know about this story. Moreover, the representatives of the press-service of the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs and in the office of the head of the Polish Foreign Intelligence our applications and questions were perceived as provocation! Representatives of the diplomatic department could not understand what in general are we talking about, and, accordingly, appeared absolutely unready to make any comments on the information of the Russian Channel 1.
As for the office of the head of the Foreign Intelligence, our first three interlocutors received initial data about the accusations made by the Russian side from us, and the fourth one simply hung up angrily. To tell the truth, such a reaction is quite natural. How any official is supposed to react to "an espionage scandal" in which his country is allegedly involved, when he learns it for the first time from some foreign news agency?
When our colleagues from the Polish Radio, heard about the Russian state TV accusations, they decided to join our search for any additional information. However, they could not find anything related to the case in the local open sources. According to the Polish journalists, they already got used long ago to such groundless allegations, which are often sounded by the Russian mass media or special services.
A competent security expert, ex-operative of the Polish Intelligence David Dastych called the information published by the Russian Channel 1 "a provocation of the Russian secret services". He said that "the incoming Russian traders could be recruited by the Polish intelligence agencies, though they prefer people with Polish roots. There might be valuable assets in the big crowd of people coming to Poland from Russia every year". On the other hand Dastych noted that "the Russian intelligence is recruiting agents in Poland. Last year there was a case of a young student, who worked as a voluntary assistant to a powerful MP - Mr. Gruszka. A member of the Russian diplomatic staff in Warsaw recruited him. Russia has a powerful intelligence network in Poland, also in the Polish military circles. Most of the agents remain from the communist time but some have been recruited recently".
Besides, according to Dastych's data Russian intelligence played an active role in an attempt to take over the Polish oil and gas industry. However, as he marked, "the attempt failed". As Dastych added, to his mind the main reasons for the strained relations between Poland and Russia and confrontation of the secret services are the divergent interests in the issues of Belarus and Ukraine.
Most likely, the finale of the "Polish spies' story" will be exactly as it was in the January scandal with the "British spying stone", which also started with sensational show on the Russian TV. To remind, no charges were brought against the British diplomats accused of espionage. At the same time, the Russian authorities have taken advantage of this scandal for their campaign on tightening the grip over the nongovernmental organizations. As Poland is the main strategic partner of the USA in struggling with Russia for influence in Eastern and Central Europe, this spying story, most likely, is aimed at achieving quite certain Kremlin's political ends.
Russia – Poland confrontation:
Hungarian Elections: Russians Happy, Poles Feel Hurt (09.04.06)
EuroSummit 2006: "Old Europe" Prefers Russia to Poland (24.03.06)
Slovak Backland of Polish Attack on Putin's Positions (07.03.06)
Czech Card of Russian-Polish Confrontation (04.03.06)
Poland Will Tear the EU Away From Russia (01.03.06)
The Visegrad Group - Polish Geopolitcal Axis (27.02.06)
The Visegrad Group: Alliance Against Russia and Germany (21.02.06)
100 Days of Marcinkiewicz: Closer to Washington, Opposing Moscow (15.02.06)
America Supports Poland's Challenge to Russia (10.02.06)
Russian intelligence in Eastern Europe:
The Kremlin Crosses out Candidates for UN SG Post (10.04.06)
Russian Intelligence Keeps an Eye on the American Military in Bulgaria (18.08.05)
Russian Espionage Activity Against Estonia Continues (08.08.05)
Seventh Baltic Economic Forum (29.05.05)
Intelligence Activity of the Russian Secret Services in Baltic Countries (23.04.05)
Chronicle of Russian Espionage in the Baltic Countries (20.04.05)
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