Russian intelligence services commissioned individuals in Poland to spray-paint offensive slogans attacking the then Conservative (PiS) government, it has been claimed.
That was according to commercial Polish broadcaster TVN and reportedly based on records of evidence on which individuals had been convicted.
On February 24, TVN reported that slogans such as f*** PiS and “Duda is an asshole” were spray-painted by those concerned.
In addition, individuals were hired for tasks such as observing military facilities, installing cameras near key infrastructure and distributing anti-war leaflets.
Those commissioned were usually migrants from Eastern European countries hired through online messenger platform Telegram and paid small amounts in cryptocurrency to carry out specific tasks, the TV station claimed.
The TVN report was based on records from court files relating to cases in which 16 people were convicted of carrying out actions on behalf of Russia.
Participants were apparently required to submit a short video or photos to their handlers as proof of completing their assignments.
TVN’s investigation found recruits were paid $7 per piece of graffiti, $5 per anti-war leaflet distributed in Polish cities and at least $300 for installing surveillance cameras. One convicted recruit also claimed he was offered $10,000 to derail a train but declined.
The Internal Security Agency (ABW) identified the perpetrators after discovering surveillance cameras, powered by solar panels and connected via wireless internet, installed along railway tracks and near Rzeszów airport ,which serves as a hub for military and humanitarian aid to Ukraine.
While it was long suspected Russia had been carrying out espionage and sabotage in Poland, the fact that it also apparently paid for the painting of political slogans had not previously been reported.
The issue led angry PiS politicians to accuse the present centre-left government under Prime Minister Donald Tusk of collusion with Russia’s actions.
“Russian intelligence paid for personal attacks on the President of Poland [Andrzej Duda] as well as for promoting the slogan ‘f…ck PiS’,” wrote Stanisław Żaryn, who served as security spokesman under the PiS government and is now an adviser to PiS-aligned Duda.
Żaryn added that these “vulgar messages were and are a very important part of the political activities of the circles that today form the government”. He claimed the Russian promotion of such messaging proved Moscow wanted to depose the PiS government.
The slogan “f*** PiS” became a rallying cry among protesters against the ban on abortions in 2020.
It was also often cited in online posts promoted by leading politicians from Tusk’s party during the run-up to the 2023 parliamentary election. In that ballot, parties of the centre-left won a majority in the Polish parliament.
According to Poland’s prosecution service, there were currently 27 ongoing espionage investigations in Poland that have not yet been made public.
Other investigations have been completed and earlier in February a Ukrainian national was imprisoned for eight years for preparing acts of sabotage such as arson.
Two Russian men were also jailed, for five-and-a-half years each, for putting up recruitment posters for Russian Wagner Group mercenaries in Polish cities.
In 2024 in a prisoner swap with Russia initiated by the US, Poland released a Russian asset called Pavel Rubtsov, a journalist who operated under the alias “Pablo Gonzales”. He had been arrested in 2022.
He was flown to Moscow via Turkey and greeted personally by Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Magdalena Chodowiec, the Polish partner of Rubtsov and a journalist who had worked for Euronews, The Guardian and France24, was charged for aiding and abetting him but released by the courts.
Despite still being under investigation by Polish authorities, she has been allowed to leave Poland to work in Vietnam, a country Rubtsov can freely travel to.
Rubtsov and Chodowiec were both active in reporting on the migration crisis on the Polish-Belarusian border in 2021 and produced material critical of the treatment of the illegal migrants by the then-PiS government.
When Rubtsov was arrested, several Polish journalists campaigned for his release. They alleged his detention was an act of revenge by PiS on a critic of the government.
His case was mentioned in the EC’s rule-of-law report on Poland in 2023 as an example of the body’s concerns about media freedom in the country.
