Igor R., formerly a deputy coordinator in Alexei Navalny’s local team in Saransk and later active in Mikhail Khodorkovsky’s Open Russia, said he was pressured, including by threats to mobilize his father for the war.
“I felt I was doing more good than harm,” WP.pl quoted his testimony as saying. He said he feared people who “knew everything” about him.
Prosecutors say both he and his wife will stand trial, with a first hearing on Dec. 8 in the District Court in Sosnowiec. If convicted, the penalty ranges from eight years to life imprisonment.
Polish investigators allege he used his wife to relay information to Russia about Polish foreign ministry officials, people involved in the National Academic Exchange Agency program, and University of Silesia teachers running Polish-language courses for Russians.
WP.pl also reported he had earlier admitted to his wife that he worked with an FSB officer identified as “Yevgeny Litko,” allegedly operating a network from Germany; she began telling acquaintances after learning of his affair with another Russian woman.
R. received political asylum in Poland in 2022, studied programming, and had a stipend, social benefits of PLN 5,000 (EUR 1,180), and dormitory housing, WP.pl said.
He was detained in July 2024 in a separate case over a parcel containing explosives sent to Poland. Two Ukrainians were also implicated, including an Odesa model, Kristina S., who was fined PLN 6,000 (EUR 1,420) by a Polish court.
Journalists from the Vot-Tak portal reported that the Ukrainian woman’s account matched their findings that R. took part in a Ukrainian intelligence operation to smuggle explosives through Poland to Russia. Investigators did not specify the shipment’s target.
Casting doubt on that version, a friend of the accused who mailed a package in R.’s name unexpectedly left for Russia, citing an expired Polish visa, WP.pl reported.
(jh)
Source: WP.pl, The Guardian