Poland boosts security spending amid concern over Russian covert activities

May 14, 2024 | Defence, Politics

Prime Minister Donald Tusk has announced that an additional 100 million zloty (€23.4 million) will be allocated to Poland’s security agencies in response to the growing threat of covert action by Russia and Belarus.

Poland has in recent days been struck by a series of unexplained fires, though Tusk today echoed other government figures in declaring that there is so far no indication that a foreign country is behind the incidents.

There is, nevertheless, “a growing threat in Europe and in Poland regarding the aggressive actions of the Russian and Belarusian security services”, said Tusk today following a meeting of his cabinet focused on security issues.

He added that, having spoken with EU allies, there are “reports from many European capitals [that] Russia is preparing various types of interference”, including in next month’s European elections.

Such a threat is not new, “but the scale is getting bigger and more disturbing”, said Tusk, adding that Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and Finland are most at risk from such activity.

The prime minister also revealed that in recent weeks, Poland has “thwarted planned attempts at direct action, including sabotage and attempted arson”.

Referring to a spate of large fires around Poland in recent days, Tusk said “for now there is no reason to believe that they were the result of the actions of external forces”. But he noted that investigations into the incidents are ongoing.

Over the weekend, Warsaw’s largest shopping centre was destroyed in a fire. That followed a blaze at a chemical waste storage facility in Silesia. A number of other fires have been reported since then, including one at a school in Grodzisk Mazowiecki that caused exams to be cancelled.

Many observers have noted that the Financial Times reported earlier this month, based on intelligence agency sources, that Russia was planning a campaign of “covert bombings, arson and attacks on infrastructure” across Europe.

Speaking today, Tusk noted that the migration crisis on the border with Belarus is also part of efforts to destabilise Poland and the region. Hundreds of attempts to cross illegally are being recorded every day, said the prime minister.

“These are not refugees, these are less and less often migrants or poor families looking for help,” he continued. “In 80 cases out of 100, we are dealing with organised groups of young men aged 18-30 who are very aggressive.”

Since 2021, the Belarusian authorities have been encouraging and helping tens of thousands of migrants and asylum seekers – mostly from Asia, Africa and the Middle East – to try to cross into the EU.

In response, Poland has fortified its border with Belarus and followed a tough policy of pushing back migrants who manage to cross. In recent days, Tusk has pledged to further strengthen defences along the frontier.

In his remarks today, Tusk claimed that the previous government, led by the Law and Justice (PiS) party that is now in opposition, took “decisions that have greatly weakened” Poland’s security services.

He said that his government was therefore reversing decisions made under PiS to close down regional branches of the Internal Security Agency (ABW) in ten of Poland’s 16 provinces.

They are also allocating an additional total of 100 million zloty to the budgets of the ABW and Foreign Intelligence Agency (AW), which previously stood at 844 million zloty and 330 million zloty respectively this year.


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Main image credit: KPRM (under CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 PL)

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