“Stop Insulting the President!” – Cenckiewicz Confronts Siemoniak Over Past Russia Policies

The head of the National Security Bureau (BBN), Sławomir Cenckiewicz, responded in exceptionally forceful terms to the aggressive post by the minister coordinating the special services, Tomasz Siemoniak. The historian and head of the BBN highlighted the policies of the PO-PSL government from 2007–2014, recalling the “friendship with the FSB,” unfavorable gas agreements, and the “wrecking of the military.” “I remember everything, and I will never cease to proclaim the truth about your friendship with Russia!” Cenckiewicz declared.

Yesterday, referring to the President’s foreign-policy activity, Tomasz Siemoniak posted on X: “According to the Constitution, the government conducts foreign policy.” It was a reaction to actions taken by the President of Poland in the field of external policy, which have irritated the governing camp – including Karol Nawrocki’s proposals to halt further centralization of the European Union.

Cenckiewicz, head of the BBN, reacted immediately. In a lengthy post, he not only defended the President, but above all reminded the PO politician and his political environment of their actions toward Russia during Donald Tusk’s government prior to 2015.

Cenckiewicz: Lech Kaczyński was right

The BBN chief began by invoking the stance of the late Lech Kaczyński, who opposed the then-ongoing reset with Moscow.

“Thank God the late President Lech Kaczyński did not fall for your policy of friendship with Russia in the years 2007-2010 and broke away from it – amid similar media hysteria,” Cenckiewicz wrote.

He added that the government at the time used the same arguments as now, claiming that the Council of Ministers has the monopoly on foreign policy and the President is only to support it.

A long list of reset-era sins

Sławomir Cenckiewicz then ruthlessly enumerated the elements of the pro-Russian course in which – as he reminded – Tomasz Siemoniak also played an active part. The list of accusations is long and includes, among others:

• “friendship with the FSB and an agreement with Lubyanka,”
• a special telephone line with the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation,
• propaganda against the American missile defense shield,
• “wrecking the military” and the “Vistula line,”
• joint construction of the Baltic Nuclear Power Plant in the Kaliningrad Oblast,
• an unfavorable gas agreement.

The BBN chief also accused the current government of hypocrisy. He pointed out that the same people who now present themselves as anti-Russian hawks were, until recently, pursuing a radically different policy.

“So we will not set off on a journey with you without prior verification, because you were usually wrong – and remain wrong – in foreign policy, although we are pleased by your sudden anti-Russian awakening,” Cenckiewicz mocked, listing the names of those now leading the Military Counterintelligence Service, including Gen. Jarosław Stróżyk, with a past in the Military Information Services (WSI), and Krzysztof Dusza, described as one of the main architects of the reset.

‘You’re left with the St. Petersburg agreement in your pocket’

In the final part of his post, Cenckiewicz addressed Siemoniak directly, reminding him of the 2013 agreement between the Military Counterintelligence Service and Russia’s FSB.

“You are left with the St. Petersburg SKW-FSB agreement of 2013 on spying on Russia’s enemies in your pocket, while still pretending that such an agreement never existed and that your pocket is empty,” the BBN chief wrote.

Cenckiewicz concluded with a forceful appeal in defense of the sitting President of Poland, alluding to the famous words from Tusk and Putin’s 2009 conference.