“The political ads on Facebook flagged by NASK as potentially foreign-funded are not an isolated case,” said Radosław Nielek, director of the National Research Institute (NASK), speaking to the media today. Nielek confirmed ongoing cooperation with Poland’s Internal Security Agency (ABW) regarding the matter. However, questions remain over whether he has official clearance to access classified information. Investigative journalist Piotr Nisztor highlighted that Nielek is known as a close associate of Civic Platform’s Grzegorz Napieralski, who appears in espionage-related case files as a “long-time friend of Huawei.” Nielek himself is also reported to have maintained ties with the Chinese tech giant.
On July 29, 2021, the ABW arrested Chinese national Weijing W. on charges of espionage for China. The Warsaw District Court authorized the operation. The accused is currently standing trial.
The investigation was initiated based on evidence gathered by ABW. Weijing W., a representative of Huawei, was first detained on January 8, 2019, alongside Polish citizen Piotr D., a former public official. According to ABW documents, both men were involved in espionage activities targeting Poland. They were charged under Article 130 §1 of the Polish Penal Code and placed in pretrial detention.
Nisztor reports that case files concerning Weijing W. and Piotr D. include records of Napieralski’s links to Huawei. Similar connections were allegedly maintained by Nielek.
As Nielek—currently head of Poland’s state-run NASK—raises alarms over potential foreign meddling in the Polish electoral process, some are now calling for scrutiny of whether Chinese interests may be influencing NASK itself. “Has the ABW granted Nielek clearance to access classified material?” Nisztor asked publicly on X (formerly Twitter), tagging Interior Minister Tomasz Siemoniak and the ministry’s spokesperson Piotr Dobrzyński.
Despite these questions, Nielek stated today that he is working “very closely” with the ABW on the investigation.
NASK recently suggested that political smear ads targeting Karol Nawrocki while promoting rival candidate Rafał Trzaskowski are actually a form of disinformation. The agency classified the ads as “harmful to the candidate allegedly being promoted” and claimed they were “destabilizing the pre-election landscape.” In a surprising twist, NASK characterized the anti-Nawrocki campaign as a possible provocation against Trzaskowski.