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27.05.2005
Part VI: Polish Intelligence in 1989-2005
Foreign Intelligence activity on Polish soil
Polish counterespionage officers declare the secret services of the Russian Federation as their main opponent at present. The interest of Russian intelligence in its western neighbor was always high, even during its significant weakening after the collapse of the Soviet Union. In first half of the nineties, the Russian secret services used their old sources of information inherited from the Communist period. Already in the second half of the nineties, their activity, aimed at acquiring new sources in political, economic, military and intelligence bodies of the Polish state, became more vigorous. The new times generated new elites in Polish society, so that new sources and agents were needed. Overall aims and specific targets on gathering intelligence information also varied. In the mid-nineties, the main Russian effort was directed towards attempts to discredit the process of Poland's integration into NATO and the EU in the eyes of Polish public. For this purpose, agents recruited among the local and foreign journalists frequently strongly exaggerated and actively discussed the various problems, which were ostensibly expected to fall on an unfortunate Poland after its introduction into these international structures. Later, at the beginning of the XXI century when Polish membership in NATO and the EU became a reality, Russian intelligence concentrated its efforts on gathering political and military information concerning North Atlantic Treaty Organization and the European Community.
At the same time, considering Russia’s expansion of the supply of energy to the West, gathering information on Polish power infrastructures was expanded and accelerated. Currently, the entire group of Russian intelligence community organizations work against Poland (directly on its territory, and abroad) – Foreign Intelligence (SVR), the main intelligence service of Joint Staff (GRU) and the Federal Security service of Russia (FSB), which includes the border guard service within its structure.
The Russian Spy in the Polish Parliament
There are numerous examples of Russian espionage activity on Polish territory during the post-Communist period. In September, 1993 the Department of Counterespionage of the UOP detained a Polish Army Major, Marek Zielinski. According to the investigation he transferred confidential military information to the military attache at the Russian embassy in Warsaw, Colonel Vladimir Lomakin. In 1995 UOP was engaged in verifying information relating to the active participation of the Russian special services in financing two left-wing pre-election campaigns in 1993 and in 1995. A most serious scandal burst on January 19, 2000 when the Polish authorities announced the expulsion from the country of 9 Russian diplomats at once. They were officers of the Service of Foreign Intelligence (SVR) working in the Russian Embassy in Warsaw. In May of the same year a high-ranking officer of the Polish Army was sentenced to four years imprisonment for espionage for Russia. The military court in Warsaw has refused to publish his name. It is known that in the past he held the post of Regional Head of Military Intelligence and that he transferred classified information to Moscow during the period of 1988-1993. He was arrested together with three other Polish Army officers in 1999 on the charge of espionage for Russia.
Other recent cases include: an officer of the Polish Military Intelligence Communication Branch was arrested on suspicion of espionage for Russia in December, 2003; a Russian "mole" was uncovered in the Polish Sejm in March, 2005. In the first case, the Russian agent was engaged in gathering information on the plans of the American bases and the locations of NATO forces on Polish territory, and also on military re-deployments connected with the future expansion of the European Community to the east. Analysts of the western counterespionage organizations claim that these are the issues of highest importance for Russian intelligence.
In the case of the "mole" he is Marczyn Tyliski, who started to work in the parliament in December 2004 as the parliamentary assistant to Jozef Grushka of "Polish Peasants' Party" (Polskie Stronnictwo Ludowe - PSL). Grushka heads the special parliamentary commission engaged in verifying the information on the attempt of an unnamed Russian oil company to be validated at the Polish market of oil products processing, by paying large bribe.
And other Slavic brothers …
In addition to Russian intelligence, the special services of other CIS countries also operate on Polish soil. In 1994 the district military court in Warsaw sentenced Major Lisenko of the Security Service of the Ukraine (Sluzhba Bezpeki Ukraini - SBU) to 2 years of imprisonment. Boyarski, a 23-year old Pole, was accused of espionage for the Ukraine together with him. Warsaw officials express hope that the change of the political leadership in Kiev will lead to the discontinuance of Ukrainian intelligence activity on Polish territory.
Read in the following part of this article about the operative activity of the Polish special services within the territory of the CIS countries.
Part One
Part Two
Part Three
Part Four
Part Five
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