The trial of a Russian married couple accused of spying for the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation is being held behind closed doors, without media participation. Before the case moved behind closed doors, there was provocative behavior by Igor R. outside the courtroom.
The case before the District Court in Sosnowiec began on Tuesday, involving two Russian citizens accused of espionage – Igor R. and his wife Irina R. The defendants face charges of participating in the activities of Russian intelligence and passing on information that could have harmed Poland. Igor R. has also been charged in connection with sending a package containing a shaped-charge bomb.
Igor R. was the first to be brought into the courtroom, wearing a red prison uniform. He was holding a sheet of paper with intersecting symbols and the words “Russia,” “Putin,” and “F… the war.” He wrote the last word in Cyrillic, inserting a peace symbol inside the letter “o.” Shortly afterward, police officers brought in his wife.
National security concerns
Journalists are not allowed to attend the trial because, at an организационное hearing in December, the court granted the prosecution’s request to exclude the public. Information about the formal start of the trial was provided by attorney Marta Smołka, who is defending Igor R.
Before the hearing, attorney Smołka told journalists that she wanted the trial to be open to the media. The court decided to exclude the public several weeks ago at the prosecution’s request. As she added, articles about this trial can be found online, with varying levels of detail. “Since an enormous amount of information about this trial is circulating in the public sphere, excluding the public is somewhat partial, somewhat pro forma,” she argued. She explained that because of the exclusion of the public, she cannot provide any information. Prosecutor Krzysztof Kuk from the Silesian division of the National Public Prosecutor’s Office told journalists that the request to exclude the public was motivated by national security concerns. He did not want to discuss the charges or provide other information, referring reporters to the prosecutor’s office spokesperson or the head of the PK division. He said only that the defendants could face up to 15 years in prison.
They cooperated with the FSB
The R. couple was arrested in July 2024, and both have been in custody since then. The investigation against them was conducted by the Silesian division of the National Public Prosecutor’s Office and the Katowice branch of the Internal Security Agency. The indictment was sent to the court in October 2025.
According to the findings of the investigation, from February 2022 to August 2022 Igor R. cooperated against Poland with the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation – among other things, he collected and passed on information concerning Russian opposition activists staying in Poland, as well as individuals and institutions providing them with assistance. As reported by the PK, Igor R. transferred the collected data to his wife Irina R. on an encrypted electronic storage device for further transmission to the FSB in Russia. Irina R. was to undertake actions in Russia aimed at passing the encrypted data to the FSB, including sending a package via a parcel locker and attempting to establish contact with officers of that service.
They sent bombs in packages
The PK also charged Igor R. with participating in July 2024, together with two Ukrainian citizens and a Russian citizen, in sending and arranging the receipt of a package containing explosive material transported by a courier company. The package contained devices and explosives in the form of nitroglycerin. It was found in a warehouse of a courier company in the Łódzkie Voivodeship.
As described by the PK, according to an expert opinion from the Criminalistics Research Bureau of the Internal Security Agency, the disclosed package contained, among other things, a powerful explosive, Soviet-made military electric detonators, a modified power bank serving as an initiating device, a metal thermos with a shaped-charge insert, and a bag of powdered aluminum. The entire package – as the prosecution emphasized – constituted a so-called shaped-charge bomb, and its explosion could have caused significant damage to infrastructure. In connection with sending this package, Igor R. was charged with causing a direct danger of an event threatening the life or health of many people or property on a large scale in the form of an explosion of explosive materials. The package containing nitroglycerin was sent by Ukrainian citizen Kristina S., against whom the District Court in Piotrków Trybunalski issued a conviction in August 2025.