{"id":14613,"date":"2026-06-29T14:48:10","date_gmt":"2026-06-29T14:48:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/14613\/"},"modified":"2026-06-29T14:48:10","modified_gmt":"2026-06-29T14:48:10","slug":"poland-arrests-11-suspects-over-alleged-russia-linked-influence-plot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/14613\/","title":{"rendered":"Poland arrests 11 suspects over alleged Russia-linked influence plot"},"content":{"rendered":"

Polish authorities have detained 11 people suspected of helping Russian intelligence services recruit Ukrainian refugees to take part in politically motivated demonstrations, officials said on Monday.<\/p>\n

The suspects – nine Ukrainian and two Belarusian nationals – allegedly recruited and paid participants among Ukrainian war refugees living in Poland, according to the Internal Security Agency (ABW). The operation was allegedly directed and financed by Russia.<\/p>\n

According to Intelligence Coordinator Tomasz Siemoniak, all 11 suspects had links to Russia or its ally Belarus and will be deported from Poland.<\/p>\n

Investigators said, “Emotional issues, including reports of corruption scandals and current events in Ukrainian domestic politics, served as the trigger for the protests.”<\/p>\n

The aim was to stir up tensions and exploit war refugees as a tool of Russian influence, the ABW said.<\/p>\n

Poland, an EU and NATO member country, is one of Ukraine’s strongest political and military backers and has taken in nearly 1 million Ukrainian refugees since Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022.<\/p>\n

The government in Warsaw has repeatedly accused Russian and Belarusian intelligence services of conducting espionage and sabotage operations in Poland by recruiting local collaborators.<\/p>\n

The arrests come shortly after the fatal shooting of a Russian artist living in exile in Poland who was critical of the Kremlin. Prime Minister Donald Tusk has described the killing as politically motivated and police have detained a suspect.<\/p>\n

\"FILE<\/p>\n

FILE PHOTO – Poland’s Minister of the Interior Tomasz Siemoniak attends the Justice and Home Affairs Council meeting, at the European Union Council headquarters in Brussels. (is associated with: \u00abPoland arrests 11 suspects over alleged Russia-linked influence plot\u00bb) Sierakowski Frederic\/EU Council\/dpa<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Polish authorities have detained 11 people suspected of helping Russian intelligence services recruit Ukrainian refugees to take part…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":14614,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[64,10128,4615,9,126,1114,10130,10129],"class_list":["post-14613","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-poland","tag-donald-tusk","tag-influence-plot","tag-internal-security-agency","tag-poland","tag-russia","tag-russian-influence","tag-suspects","tag-ukrainian-war"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14613","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14613"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14613\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14614"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14613"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14613"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14613"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}