Wednesday we met the first findings of the committee on the examination of Russian and Belarusian influences. Her chairman, Brig-Gen Jarosław Swarżyk, presented a study after 5 months of work. “The Commission has identified a number of actions that have contributed to the modus operandi of the peculiar services of Russia and Belarus”, the Chief of Military Counterintelligence reported.
The Commission for the survey of Russian and Belarusian Influences was set up in May, and its task was to measure whether and how abroad services could have influenced the situation in Poland over the last 20 years. On Wednesday, Brig-Gen Jarosław Sróżyk, Head of Military Counterintelligence Service, who is head of the committee, presented her first findings. “The Commission has so far identified a number of actions that meet the objectives of the abroad policy of Russia and the Republic of Belarus and have contributed to the modus operandi of the peculiar services of these countries in terms of initiatives aimed at weakening the possible of the Republic of Poland,” said the president of the committee.
Presenting the gene report. The Guardian distinguished 4 key areas. The first concerns the slowing down or cancellation of modernisation programs to be implemented for the Polish Army. These include Caracal helicopters, Patriot systems, but besides the "Karkonosze" programme, in which Poland was to get flying tankers from 2012 to 2016. – The decision taken by the then head of the MON (Antoni Macerewicz – ed.) without any mode was arbitrary, unwarranted, unreflective, short-sighted, unwarranted and unthought-out, amazing to the General Staff and another cells, the organisational units of the MON, most likely dictated to a large degree by individual dislike of the European Union's partners has a very circumstantial dimension for the armed forces," said Gen. – As a result, we lost not only a fewer million PLN contributions, but besides the anticipation of stationing in Poland, in the View of specified aircraft. present the program is simply a large success, a fleet of 10 tankers is stationed in Cologne, Germany, not Poland," he noted. He besides added that, as a consequence of this action by the Minister of Defence at the time, the committee recommended that papers be transferred to the prosecutor's office in this case "with the aim of assessing the anticipation of the crime being committed by Antoni Macierewicz with Article 129 of the Act, which reads: “who, being authorized to act on behalf of the Republic of Poland in relations with the government of a abroad state or abroad organisation, acts against the Republic of Poland, is subject to imprisonment from 1 year to 10”".
The second point raised by the president of the committee was to "destroy the possible of Polish peculiar services". As the officer said, it is about disenfranchising officers of pension rights of uniformed services if for 1 day they served in the organs of the Polish People's Republic, eliminating 10 of the 15 ABW delegations, or a set reserved at the Institute of National Memory.
Gen. The Guardian reported that actions were besides analysed in the period before the outbreak of the war in Ukraine. "The papers collected by the committee did not identify materials proving the crucial actions taken by the government to prepare Poland for the challenges that might have been associated with aggression," he said. He stressed that information about the anticipation of war on individual states, as well as NATO, was received in 2021. "The first way dates from February 24, 2022," he noted.
The last, 4th area discussed during the conference was "Financing Russian gross in the USA". Brig. Gen. Guardian explained that it was primarily about hiring outside entities to represent the state or entity in the United States. specified solutions were to be used, among others, by the Ministry of National Defence, the Polish Armed Forces Group and another companies of the State Treasury. However, the companies that were hired for this were connected to the Russian Federation. Among them were, among others, The Potomac Square Group, with which he collaborated, among others, GRU officer Rinat Achmetszyn, Park Strategies belonging to erstwhile Senator Alfons D’Amato, who opposed Poland's entry into NATO, as well as BGR Group, which supports Russian entities like Gazprom, Bank Moscow or those related to Nord Stream 2. We didn't find any sign of these companies. most likely due to the fact that they were busy with actions for Russia," said the general. He added that in this case, the committee besides recommended carrying out an analysis with respect to the submission of a notification of the anticipation of committing a crime.
The committee president reported that for more than 4 months, its members had held almost 40 meetings and analysed thousands of pages of documents. However, the findings presented present are only part of the conclusions that have been drawn. For safety reasons, not all can be made public.
At the same time, the general stressed that the committee is not a peculiar service and so its members do not operate. However, they bear full work for “every word and surname” which appears in the report. He besides appreciated excellent cooperation with institutions and resorts. As an exception to this rule, he gave an example of the President's Chancellery. As the general said, a advanced authoritative from the president's surroundings informed him that Andrzej Duda would like to share with the committee information on Antoni Macierewicz. And that's what the committee sent to the President's Chancellery. “I regret to say that we have received a negative answer that there is no specified information,” said Brig. Gen. Brig. "So the argument may be that the president's environment, due to the fact that I do not fishy the president himself, hides information from the committee about the activities of the Minister of National Defence in 2015-2018," explained the president of the committee.
Gen. The Guardian reported that the committee's work would continue, while another, more detailed study would be published in March 2025. If necessary, it will first appear in partial form. In November, however, the committee intends to print a public study on misinformation.
