Polish services on 7 August detained in Warsaw a 29-year-old Russian citizen suspected of accepting an order to kill a U.S. citizen of Ukrainian origin. Tomasz Siemoniak called him a hit man. For Poland, the conclusion is simple: the Russian hybrid war entered the phase of strikes in the heart of the NATO state.
The bombing that was to happen in Warsaw
According to the information provided by Prime Minister Donald Tusk, Homeland safety and police stopped a Russian citizen on 7 Augustto prepare the execution of a Ukrainian citizen of the United States. The execution was to take place in Warsaw. The Prime Minister spoke of a man uncomfortable for Vladimir Putin's government and thanked the American services for their cooperation.
Tomasz Siemoniak in a conversation with Virtual Poland went even further in the assessment of the case. He stated that he was a paid killer and Russia was trying to accomplish respective goals in 1 move: to kill a man, intimidate Poland and show that he could operate on the streets of Warsaw or Biała Podlaska. It's not just a crime story. This is simply a message from the state that has been treating force as a policy tool for years.
In this case, you should be precise. The man is simply a suspect, the court has put him in temporary custody, and the charges are not a conviction. That is why the regulation of law must act hard and purely procedurally. The strength of the state is not about screaming, but about the fact that abroad service cannot organise killings in Polish territory without impunity.
Poland cannot be the soft underbelly of NATO
If the service reports are confirmed in the proceedings, the substance will have a burden beyond 1 counterintelligence action. Poland is the front of the West. Through our territory there is support for Ukraine, through our cities people connected with war, aid, defence business and diplomacy. For Moscow, it's a natural area of pressure.
Therefore, the detention of a suspected Russian must be read along with erstwhile cases of diversion, arson, propaganda and attempts to destabilize. DN already described how ABW thwarted the Warsaw bombing and how Russia tries to pump information chaos in Poland. It's 1 war led by different methods. 1 day it's a cyber attack, another day it's written on a wall, another man with the task of killing a designated person.
National business here is obvious. Poland must aid Ukraine where our state needs it, but at the same time it must not let the war of a abroad state to decision on our streets. Hospitality, alliances and cooperation do not mean giving up control. The state is to defend Poles, allies and public order, not pretend that hybrid aggression will halt at the border.
Siemoniak and a Bitter Lesson in Realism
Siemoniak besides spoke in fresh days about relations with Kiev, indicating that reason requires cooperation, but Ukrainian historical policy hurts Polish sensitivity. This thread is not a sideline. This is what national realism means: to see Russia as a threat, to support our own safety through alliances, and at the same time to strictly defender Polish memory, Polish interests and Polish order.
You can't be drawn into a false choice. Or unconditional consent to everything, or Moscow narrative. The Polish right should reject both simplifications. Kiev has a work to respect Polish memory of Volyn, and Warsaw has a work to prevent the Kremlin from executing in the NATO state. These 2 things are not contradictory. They show that the Polish state must yet talk the language of national interest.
Services are to act before tragedy
In democracy, peculiar services always require control. It's part of a healthy state, not the whim of commentators. But in a fight against Russian aggression, a state without efficient services is vulnerable. Keeping a man from the alleged assassination is precisely the minute erstwhile citizens see the sense of financing counterintelligence, police and allied cooperation.
It is besides worth remembering that Russian peculiar operations feed on the softness of the opponent. They're investigating the reaction. They check whether the media will rapidly forget, whether politicians will blur the subject, whether society will consider it another sensation. Therefore, the answer must be calm but firm: an investigation to the end, public information where it does not harm the case, and a real strengthening of protection from the Russian agent.
For Poles there is simply a circumstantial stake. It's about street security, the credibility of the state and the border that Moscow cannot cross. If Russia wants to show that it can act in Warsaw as at home, Poland must show the opposite: here the Polish state operates.
Source: Polish Radio, Virtual Poland, PAP/IAR.
Source: WP News
