The commission has strongly criticised Antoni Macierewicz for his role in cancelling prominent defence projects
The head of a special commission investigating Russian and Belarusian interference in Poland announced on Wednesday that he is referring a former defence minister to prosecutors.
General Jaroslaw Stróżyk, who also chairs the Polish Military Counterintelligence Service, accused Antoni Macierewicz – the defence minister from 2015-2018 under the right-wing Law and Justice Party (PiS) – of impairing Poland’s defence capabilities before Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
Stróżyk was appointed by Prime Minister Donald Tusk to head the commission when it was established in May. Tusk’s pro-EU coalition tasked the commission with investigating cases of Russia and Belarus exerting influence on Poland’s politics over the past two decades.
Tusk says that Poland, which has remained a stalwart ally of Ukraine, is facing intensifying hybrid attacks from Russia and Belarus, including sabotage, cyberattacks and manufacturing migrant pressure along the Poland-Belarus border.
Some of the documents reviewed by the commission suggest “direct influence” by Russia, Stróżyk said, without providing further details. Many of the documents remain classified, he noted.
A ‘personal aversion’ to the EU
Presenting the commission’s first unclassified conclusions after months of extensive research and interviews, Stróżyk said that Macierewicz had taken a series of decisions detrimental to Poland’s defence.
For example, Macierewicz cancelled, without commissioning any expert analysis or consultations, seven tanker aircraft for Poland’s fleet of 48 F-16 fighter jets, reducing their airborne time and defence capabilities, according to Stróżyk.
The commission said the decision was dictated by Macierewicz’s “personal aversion to partners in the EU”, calling it a “diplomatic treason”.
Macierewicz is also blamed in the report for hurting the operations of Poland’s special services and intelligence by closing 10 out of their 15 regional bureaus in 2017.
Macierewicz denied wrongdoing on Wednesday, calling the report “absurd.”
Macierewicz is a member of the national-conservative PiS, which often locked heads with officials in Brussels, notably over the county’s interpretation of the rule of law and a perceived bias in the Polish judiciary.
Stróżyk stated that the wider PiS government, which was voted out in 2023, refused to heed US warnings that Russia was preparing to invade Ukraine, and took no pro-defence decisions.
He also suggested that the office of President Andrzej Duda, who also hails from the PiS, could be withholding information pertinent to the Macierewicz investigation, according to Polish media.
Responding to the findings, foreign minister Radosław Sikorski criticised Macierewicz, telling a Polish broadcaster: “Macierewicz should have been in prison for what he has been doing to Poland for 30 years. I hope he will finally be in prison.”
“If Macierewicz were a Russian agent, he could not have performed his task better,” Sikorski added.
ADVERTISEMENTStróżyk said the commission will refer Macierewicz to prosecutors, who will decide whether to take further action.
Read the full article here