Tusk calls for probe into alleged Russian links to tape scandal that caused crisis for his government

Donald Tusk, the head of Poland’s main opposition grouping, has called for an inquiry into whether Russia had a hand in a secret recording scandal that many believe helped bring down his Civic Platform (PO) party’s government in 2015. A government spokesman responded by calling Tusk’s demands “absurd”.

The issue has returned to the headlines this week following claims by Newsweek Polska that an associate of Marek Falenta – a businessman jailed for his role in the secret recordings – had testified that the tapes fell into Russian hands before coming to light publicly.

The recordings, made at Warsaw restaurants, featured conversations between prominent public figures, including government officials and business leaders. The publication of their contents, which began in 2014, prompted the resignation in 2015 of three government ministers and the speaker of parliament.

Later that year, the PO-led government was ousted after two terms in office and replaced by a new administration led by the Law and Justice (PiS) party, which currently remains in power. Falenta was sentenced to 2.5 years imprisonment in 2016, though went on the run and evaded jail until 2019.

In the new Newsweek article, journalist Grzegorz Rzeczkowski – who has also previously published investigations claiming Russian links to the scandal – wrote that Polish prosecutors have been “avoiding the espionage angle” instead of probing whether Falenta sold the recordings to Russian security services.

At a press conference on Tuesday, Tusk – who returned last year as leader of PO – claimed that it had been in Moscow’s interests for the previous PO government to be replaced because he had proposed setting up an “energy union” – a common gas market for Europe to make the EU independent of Russian supplies.

Tusk noted that, after PiS came to power, Poland’s coal imports from Russia increased significantly. He then claimed that the energy minister in the PiS-led government of that period, Krzysztof Tchórzewski, had “close family – his son and brother – trading in coal on a large scale with Russia”.

Tusk declared that an independent inquiry was needed “so no one in Poland can speculate” that PiS “was in fact installed [in power] by the Russian services”.

The claims were immediately rejected by PiS, which takes a strongly anti-Russian line and has itself accused Tusk and PO of being too friendly towards – and even collaborating with – Russia. The PiS government in 2020 ordered state firms to stop importing Russian coal and this year also banned private businesses from doing so.

Government spokesman Piotr Müller said that Tusk’s calls for a probe into the recording scandal were unjustified. He added that linking the issue to imports of coal from Russia under PiS was “absurd”.

Justice minister Zbigniew Ziobro, who is also prosecutor general, said that prosecutors would on Wednesday publish testimony by Falenta’s business partner. The conclusion would be that the prosecutor’s office was not acting for political reasons, Ziobro added.

PiS spokesman Radosław Fogiel dismissed Tusk’s “conspiracy theories”, saying that the PO “government was not overthrown by [secret] tapes, but by the poverty and huge unemployment that prevailed then. Donald Tusk was the prime minister of Polish poverty”.

The role of the secret recordings in unseating PO remains debated. The tapes were used by PO’s critics to paint a picture of a cynical and luxury-loving government contemptuous of ordinary people. PiS then swept to power on a wave of promises to clean up public life, spread wealth more evenly, and restore dignity to normal Poles.

Main image credit: Platforma Obywatelska/Twitter

Peter Kononczuk

Peter Kononczuk is senior editor at Notes from Poland. He was previously a journalist for Agence France-Presse (AFP) in London and Warsaw.