Russian intelligence services are showing a clear inclination toward kinetic operations in Poland — actions capable of causing real damage and loss of life — Colonel Rafał Syrysko, chief of the Internal Security Agency (ABW), told the daily Rzeczpospolita.
"Russia keeps pushing the limits", Syrysko said, noting that Poland has become a target of so-called low-cost agent operations — individuals recruited quickly and cheaply, mainly online, to carry out arson attacks and assaults. The mass, dispersed nature of these activities is designed partly to overwhelm Polish counterintelligence and divert attention from more serious operations, he said.
Syrysko warned that Russian services are increasingly drawing on criminal networks, which shortens the training process and makes their methods more brutal. Moscow, he added, is carrying out these kinetic actions while accepting that they may result in mass casualties.
On China, Syrysko said Beijing also operates agents in Poland, but with a different focus — economic expansion, lobbying influence and soft power aimed at promoting the Chinese system as an alternative to liberal democracy. "These activities are systemic and calculated over many years", he said.
The ABW chief assessed the threat of Islamic terrorism in Poland as relatively low, but noted it is evolving toward online radicalization. He cited 2025 operations in which a 17-year-old and a group of three 19-year-olds were detained for planning attacks on schools. Syrysko attributed youth radicalization to desensitization to online violence and contempt for human life, warning that "lone wolves" represent a real terrorist threat. Countering the phenomenon, he said, requires the engagement of the entire education system, not just the security services.
(jh)
Source: PAP