“The new government and Minister Siemoniak failed to take care of Andrzej Poczobut. We closed one of the border crossings with Belarus in Bobrowniki at the time when Poczobut received a draconian sentence. We said that the Polish state would reopen this crossing only when the Belarusian side released Andrzej Poczobut. In December this year, Donald Tusk reopened the crossing without Poczobut’s release. We got nothing in return,” said Maciej Wąsik, an MEP from Law and Justice (PiS), on the program “Michał #Rachoń”.
Rubtsov Released from Custody
The Russian spy Pavel Rubtsov was released from Polish custody as part of a prisoner exchange between Western countries and Russia and left Poland at the end of July last year. Before his release, he was given the opportunity to familiarize himself with the case files in the investigation against him. He was greeted at the airport by Vladimir Putin himself. Rubtsov operated, among other places, in Poland, posing as a journalist (he claimed to be the Spaniard Pablo Gonzalez) and gathering information on the situation in Ukraine for Russian special services.
His task also included gaining the trust of Russian opposition activists. In Poland, he built close relationships with women, including Magdalena Ch., a journalist well known in media circles, who was present at TVP headquarters during the illegal takeover of public media.
Maciej Wąsik, an MEP from Law and Justice (PiS) and a state secretary at the Ministry of the Interior and Administration (Ministerstwo Spraw Wewnętrznych i Administracji, MSWiA) in 2019-2023, was asked about the release of the Russian spy from custody on the program “Michał #Rachoń”.
“Rubtsov was exchanged in August, and earlier the prosecutorial proceedings had been concluded and an indictment was to be filed. The prosecutor allowed him to familiarize himself with the materials gathered in the investigation. Rubtsov reviewed these materials for two weeks. There must have been a great deal of them. Spies have good memories. He spent two weeks at the headquarters of the Internal Security Agency (ABW), and then he was handed over to Putin in Istanbul. He went to Istanbul and then to Moscow with enormous up-to-date knowledge,” he said.
In his opinion, “at the government level, there was a lack of a certain imagination.”
“In my view, the minister supervising the services should have informed the Prosecutor General that such a decision was being planned, or the services should have informed the prosecutor handling the case that allowing Rubtsov to familiarize himself with the investigation materials was not necessary and could even be harmful to the Polish state, because he would probably leave for Russia after some time,” he emphasized.
He also recalled a conversation between the US ambassador and Minister Kamiński.
“When Mariusz Kamiński was minister of the interior, the US ambassador came to him and asked whether Poland had any assets, because such an exchange was being planned. Minister Kamiński indicated that we had Rubtsov and were able to designate him as our contribution to this exchange, but he also said that we expected Poland to secure the release of Andrzej Poczobut from prison,” he noted.
In his opinion, “someone left Andrzej Poczobut to fend for himself – we had all the instruments to ensure that Andrzej Poczobut could leave prison.”
“Unfortunately, the new government and Minister Siemoniak failed to take care of Andrzej Poczobut. We closed one of the border crossings with Belarus in Bobrowniki when Poczobut received that draconian sentence. We said that the Polish state would reopen this crossing only when the Belarusian side released Andrzej Poczobut. In December this year, Donald Tusk reopened this crossing without the release of Andrzej Poczobut. We got nothing in return. What is more – saboteurs fled to Belarus through these crossings, who blew up railway tracks in Poland,” he announced.