The Russian court sentenced Georgi Pirogov to 23 years of penal colony for espionage for Poland, reported the FSB on 14 August. According to Russian services, the man was to supply information about systems utilized in the war against Ukraine. For Poland it is simply a signal: Moscow is inactive building a communicative of siege and enemy from Warsaw.
Judgment according to the FSB
Russian services reported that Georgi Vladimirovich Pirogov was legally sentenced to 23 years imprisonment in a high-security penal colony. According to the FSB, he was to collect information about Russian systems utilized in the war against Ukraine and to pass it on to Polish intelligence services.
Some media, citing Russian communications, besides reported a fine of 800,000 rubles. Polsat News reported that the case was classified in Russia as a state treason in the form of espionage and assistance to a abroad state. This must be read precisely: the origin of the charges is the safety apparatus of the war-torn state and for years utilizing spy processes as a political tool.
Poland as a convenient enemy
Moscow likes to represent Poland as an active opponent due to the fact that specified a communicative serves the Kremlin well inside the country. The external enemy explains repression, advanced sentences and militarisation of public life. This does not change the fact that Poland is real on the first line of the intelligence conflict with Russia. The NATO border, assistance to Ukraine and geographical location make our country the natural mark of Russian pressure.
We wrote about this force on the case where ABW thwarted the Warsaw bombing. It was about actions in Poland. In the Pirogov case, we see the another side of the same clash: The Kremlin communicates to its own society that Polish services are to be omnipresent, and any contact with the West may end with a draconian sentence.
Interview War and Narration War
Russia has tightened the rules and practice of repression since the beginning of full-scale aggression against Ukraine. Trials of treason, espionage and cooperation with abroad countries are to deter their own citizens and send a signal to the West: The Kremlin treats conflict as a full political, military and information clash.
For Warsaw, the proposal is simple. The Polish state must have efficient services, resilient procedures and politicians who realize that Russia does not lead us to average diplomacy. This is hybrid pressure, which includes sabotage, propaganda, provocations and court cases utilized as a political message. fresh case where Russian was to execute in Warsaw, shows that abstract warnings rapidly become concrete.
Rate for the safety of Poland
Poland should neither underestimate Russian communications nor accept them uncritically. Tough realism means 1 thing: recognizing the Kremlin's interest and strengthening its own state. In the face of Russia, sentimentalism is simply a luxury which cannot afford a country located between Berlin and Moscow.
Pirogov's judgment, regardless of the secret case, is part of a larger picture. Russia wants to intimidate, mobilize and show Poland as an enemy. The answer can't be panic. The answer must be a cool state power, an effective counterintelligence and a policy that does not confuse peace with naivety.
Source: Interia Events, Polsat News, TVN24.
Source: Interia Events
