Fourteen foreign nationals who operated as part of a Russian spy network in Poland were today sentenced to between one and six years in prison. The group monitored transports to Ukraine and planned to derail a train carrying military aid.
Since March this year, 16 people in total have been detained and charged with acting as part of the network. Most of them are Ukrainians while two are students from Belarus and one is a Russian national who was in Poland as a professional ice hockey player.
The group installed at least six cameras that they operated with mobile apps and used to monitor air and rail transports, reports the Rzeczpospolita daily, citing court files. They were coordinated by a leader, named as Andriej, using the Telegram messaging service, with their group supervised from outside Poland.
Among the targets they observed were the international airport and train station in Rzeszów – a Polish city that has become the main hub for aid to Ukraine – and the naval port in Gdynia, as well as border crossings with Ukraine.
Śledzili pociągi z pomocą dla Ukrainy, planowali ich wysadzenie i zabójstwa. 14 cudzoziemców z rosyjskiej siatki szpiegowskiej działającej w Polsce zostało skazanychhttps://t.co/T3B43XPt73
— Rzeczpospolita (@rzeczpospolita) December 19, 2023
Initially, all of them confessed and indicated they would plead guilty, but two later withdrew that decision and will stand trial separately, reports Rzeczpospolita. The remaining 14 were sentenced today by the district court in Lublin for the crimes of espionage and operating as part of a criminal group.
The longest sentence, of six years, was received by a man who under Polish privacy law is named only as Artem A. The shortest, of one year, was given to Maria M., one of the Belarusian students. The sentences can still be appealed.
Those who received the shortest sentences will soon be eligible to request release because they have already been in detention since March, reports news website Onet.
Sixteen foreign nationals accused of being part of a Russian spy network in Poland have been indicted.
The group allegedly planned to sabotage aid transports to Ukraine and undertook propaganda activities aimed at inciting anti-Ukrainian sentiment https://t.co/OFsmzkMWQh
— Notes from Poland 🇵🇱 (@notesfrompoland) November 23, 2023
Rzeczpospolita reports that Andriej ordered members of the network to complete tasks including setting cars and houses on fire, carrying out beatings, and putting up leaflets attacking Ukrainians. He also put together plans to derail a train carrying military equipment to Ukraine.
Members of the group were offered payments for completing tasks: $5 for posting a leaflet, $300-400 for mounting a camera, and up to $10,000 for the proposed train derailment. Money was transferred to them in the form of cryptocurrency.
One member of the group, Maksym L., a 23-year-old unemployed Ukrainian car mechanic, was paid over 20,000 zloty ($5,065), reports Rzeczpospolita. Artur M., a Ukrainian refugee who was 17 years old at the time of his detention, earned 19,000 zloty.
“We were dealing with a modern, previously unknown way of running and organising a spy network, not only in Poland, but also in the entire European Union,” prosecutor Piotr Łopatyński told Onet.
Poland has arrested two Russians accused of distributing hundreds of recruitment posters for the Wagner Group in Warsaw and Kraków.
The pair – who Polish investigators say were paid from Moscow – could face up to ten years in prison if found guilty https://t.co/oOASjPtt7Q
— Notes from Poland 🇵🇱 (@notesfrompoland) August 14, 2023
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Main image credit: Lisa Hastert/EU (under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
Daniel Tilles is editor-in-chief of Notes from Poland. He has written on Polish affairs for a wide range of publications, including Foreign Policy, POLITICO Europe, EUobserver and Dziennik Gazeta Prawna.
