Poland launches probe into Russian, Belarusian influence

A committee tasked with probing Russian and Belarusian influence in Poland started work Wednesday, Prime Minister Donald Tusk said, amid growing fears Moscow is trying to destabilize the country. (Reuters/File)

• EU member Poland is one of staunchest allies of its neighbor Ukraine in its battle against the Russian invasion
• It has joined other countries in blaming Russia for a wave of cyberattacks

WARSAW: A committee tasked with probing Russian and Belarusian influence in Poland started work Wednesday, Prime Minister Donald Tusk said, amid growing fears Moscow is trying to destabilize the country.
EU member Poland is one of staunchest allies of its neighbor Ukraine in its battle against the Russian invasion.
It has joined other countries in blaming Russia for a wave of cyberattacks and attempts to sow division ahead of this weekend’s elections to the European parliament.
On Friday, Warsaw said Russian hackers were likely behind a false story planted on the wire of the state news agency PAP that said Poles would be mobilized to fight in Ukraine.
The panel was set up by government decree last month to investigate Russian and Belarusian attempts to influence political life.
Its task was to shed light on “what the real threats from Russia and Belarus look like today,” said Tusk, a pro-EU majority leader.
“We already know exactly that these two countries and their services are the most active in Poland,” he added.
The panel, made up of experts in security, the law and the media, will publish its first findings within two months, he said.
Last year, the previous Polish government of the right-wing conservatives set up a committee with the stated goal of investigating citizens who may have succumbed to Russian influence.
Under the law, those found guilty by the committee risked being banned for 10 years from public positions.
But its critics argued that the measures were actually designed to target the then-opposition leader Tusk.
The new panel, created by Tusk’s government, has limited powers.
All its proceedings go on behind close doors and it is only allowed to submit criminal complaints to prosecutors.