“Tusk cynically and selectively uses testimonies from suspects. He takes from them only what suits him. He stays silent about facts that are inconvenient for him. And when those facts come to light, he immediately changes his narrative by 180 degrees,” said Zbigniew Ziobro. The politician commented on the latest findings by Wirtualna Polska, which revealed that there is no evidence supporting claims promoted by Donald Tusk alleging that Zondacrypto was linked to the “Russian mafia.”
Tusk on the “Russian Mafia”
In April this year, Donald Tusk claimed that Zondacrypto had been financed with funds originating from the “Russian mafia.” Today, the Wirtualna Polska portal revealed that there is no credible evidence confirming the claims circulated by the Polish prime minister.
“The Internal Security Agency memo, whose contents were later repeated by the prime minister and pro-government media outlets, contains information spread by a man who himself is accused of operating in a gang cooperating with Russia. Prosecutors took seriously the claims made by Krzysztof K., who had previously accused Marcin Kierwiński, Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz, Tomasz Siemoniak, and Adam Bodnar of corruption and ties to criminals. Either the Internal Security Agency misled the prime minister, or the prime minister misled members of parliament and all Poles by speaking about a Russian mafia connection in Zondacrypto,” wrote WP journalist Szymon Jadczak.
Zbigniew Ziobro responded to the report in a post published on X.
“Tusk places enormous trust in people suspected of crimes, but in an extremely selective way. Based on the testimony of a man accused of participating in a gang operating under Moscow’s protection, Tusk announced that he had ‘evidence’ proving that the Zondacrypto company had supposedly been created by Russian intelligence services. Yet the same man had previously testified that Kosiniak-Kamysz, Kierwiński, Siemoniak, and Bodnar took bribes and had ties with criminals. Tusk did not utter a single word about that. This is not the first time,” the politician said.
Ziobro also recalled that “in 2022, Tusk used testimony from another suspect to accuse PiS of co-organizing the recordings made by waiters at the ‘Sowa i Przyjaciele’ restaurant, recordings that exposed the truth and discredited his first government. Back then, Tusk praised the suspect and spoke highly of his credibility.”
“But when I later revealed that the same ‘Tusk’s credible witness’ had testified that Prime Minister Tusk’s son accepted hundreds of thousands of euros in bribes for his father in a Biedronka shopping bag, suddenly the suspect stopped being credible. That is the method,” Ziobro explained.
Ziobro on Tusk: He Should Explain His Inaction
In Ziobro’s view, “Tusk cynically and selectively uses testimonies from suspects — taking only what suits him while remaining silent about facts inconvenient for himself.”
“And when those facts come to light, he immediately changes the narrative by 180 degrees. Everything depends on whom he currently wants to target. Instead of spinning stories, Tusk should explain his inaction regarding the Zondacrypto case,” Ziobro concluded.