How the Russia spreads disinformation in Poland. Investigation

This article was written as part of a project aimed at combating misinformation spread by the Russian Federation about refugees from Ukraine in the EU. It covers large-scale monitoring of online media in several EU countries, including Germany, Austria, the Czech Republic, Poland, Romania and Moldova. The media monitoring was conducted in November 2023. The project is supported by CRDF Global.

You can also read an article about how Austrian media spread Russian propaganda.

Poland has long been in the crosshairs of Russian propaganda. Ever since Russia started fighting in Donbas and annexed Crimea in 2014, some Polish media and propagandists have been actively promoting pro-Kremlin narratives in Poland. This country is ranks 6 in the list of countries active in helping Ukraine after February 24, 2022 (according to Ukraine Support Tracker Data by Kiel Institute for World Economy) and Poles actively support Ukrainians themselves.

Activation after the full-scale Russian invasion

Since February 2022, the situation has only worsened. Russian propaganda has intensified to the maximum. Disinformation about Ukrainian troops, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, and Ukrainian refugees was broadcast on all channels of Russian propaganda.

The content that reached the Polish public was intended to create a sense of threat and fear in connection with the war, as well as to intimidate people who support defending Ukraine.

The main narratives Russia wants to impose on Poland are as follows:

- Ukrainian troops are incompetent

- There is no point in supporting Ukraine,

- Poland plans to seize the western territories of Ukraine,

- Ukrainian refugees in Poland are thieves, sick people, and those who take away social assistance intended for Poles.

Some of the channels for spreading disinformation are international propaganda channels like Sputnik and Russia Today (now broadcast under the RT logo), as well as the pro-Kremlin Voice of Europe portal. The information from pro-Kremlin sources mainly concerns events abroad. Here you can see the extent to which pro-Russian propaganda tries to shape the image of the modern world for Poles.

However, this is not the only method of propaganda. It is even more dangerous when pro-Russian narratives leak into Polish media or Polish information groups on Facebook. The number of Polish Facebook users (according to conservative estimates) who regularly come into contact with pro-Russian propaganda has grown to 2.5 million. And the number of clicks to these sites is over 53.6 million.

In this article we will review a number of internet portals, which could be considered as Kremlin mouthpieces The largest are Myśl Polska and kresy.pl, but there are also smaller ones (such as alternews.pl, magnapolonia.org, wolnosc24.pl, and many others). We will also share information about Pro-Russian politicians (e.g. Janusz Korwin-Mikke) and YouTube bloggers who also tend to spread Kremlin lies in Poland.

Russian proxy media in Poland

Sputnik Polska is a Russian news and propaganda agency established in 2014. It is headed by Margarita Simonian and Dmitry Kiselev. Since its inception, it has opened editorial offices in 10 countries.

The main task of this media outlet is to spread Russian disinformation abroad and broadcast pro-Kremlin narratives.

Sputnik publishes news from all over the world and from Poland, edited to fit the pro-Kremlin vision of reality.

The principle of presenting information is as follows: The US, the EU, NATO and Germany are evil, in a state of decline and anarchy, while Russia is stable and secure. But Russia is "afraid" that it will be attacked by the "bad guys", so it is arming itself to defend itself in the Third World War that is about to break out and which will be provoked by the United States.

Sputnik's editor-in-chief Margarita Simonian herself says that this media outlet is not a media outlet, but a tool of the Ministry of Defense, it is a soldier in the information war.

Sputnik Polska has long been promoting the narrative of a global armed conflict. Back in 2018, four years before Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the publication published articles:What to do if "war breaks out tomorrow"; World War III: Should Putin and Russia be feared; "The consequences of breaking the nuclear agreement with Iran could be lamentable."

Sputnik tries to impose its narratives on everything. For example, during the active Covid pandemic, the Russians promoted their Sputnik V vaccine in every possible way. Here's one of the headlines criticizing the Polish government for not allowing the Russian vaccine to be imported into Poland: «Another V4 country has chosen Sputnik V». «In Poland, hatred of Russia prevails over reason». In addition, the publication repeatedly posted news about how other countries, mostly from the orbit of Russian influence, had approved the use of the Sputnik V vaccine.

Since the start of the full-scale invasion, Russian disinformation has turned its efforts against Ukraine. There was discrediting of Ukrainian refugees, a favorite narrative of Russian propaganda that Poland wants to annex western Ukraine, and, of course, constant disinformation that the Ukrainian counteroffensive is not working.

Sputnik Polska does not have a high reach in Poland because Poles do not trust the outlet and its narratives. According to the Similar Web service, the site has 58.8 thousand views per month on average. This is not a lot. However, this publication poses a threat in another way.

Sputnik's news in slightly edited versions can be found on dozens of mini-news portals, with no information about the editors, office, or authors. The news from these portals is spread through social networks, especially on Polish Facebook. This is even worse than a link directly from Sputnik, as the origin of the news is not as easy to recognize. The main goal of the publication in Poland is to spread fear. To make Poles feel scared and weak.

Sources of "independent information" with Russian narratives

"Suwerenny PL" is a news channel that positions itself as a "source of independent information". This channel is 5 years old. It was created in 2017. From the very beginning of the channel's creation, it has been publishing anti-Semitic and racist videos. Moreover, there is almost no information who is behind the publication.

During the Coronavirus epidemic, the Suwerenny PL channel spread false information about the pandemic itself. For example, the channel features a video with a former candidate for mayor of Krakow, where the politician claims that deaths from Covid are exaggerated and that the masks are illegal. In addition, the author strongly supported anti-vaccination rallies in Poland.

He shoots all the videos in the first person and does not show his face. In one of the first videos published on the channel, the author films a black family in France and wonders what such a large family is doing in Paris and tries to ridicule them. Or he goes to anti-Israeli protests and calls Israelis "thugs." After Hamas's brutal attack on Israel, this blogger's position has not changed. He opposes Israel and supports Hamas terrorists.

When there are no relevant topics, the Suwerenny PL channel features videos about conspiracy theories and the global government.

Since the beginning of Russia's full-scale aggression against Ukraine, the author has actively switched to anti-Ukrainian rhetoric and spreads pro-Russian narratives. He talks about how Ukrainian refugees are harming the Polish economy and are ungrateful to Poland for its help, and that because of Ukrainians, Poland will have a second Ukraine, with corruption and oligarchs. In addition, all this is accompanied by periodic statements intended to incite panic that a crisis will soon come to Poland and all Poles will live in poverty.

The Suwerenny PL channel has 174 thousand subscribers, 1290 videos on its channel, more than 58 million views in total and about 1.225 million views per month.

Polish politicians in the service of the Kremlin

Janusz Korwin-Mikke is a former Member of the Polish Parliament

He supported the annexation of Crimea and then visited the peninsula without hiding it. He did so without border control from Ukraine, violating its regulations. The Ukrainian prosecutor's office reacted, and Korwin-Mikke called to embrace reality in response. He appeared on Russian television and accused the Polish authorities of Russophobia. After Russia launched the 2022 invasion, he criticised sanctions, suggested that Russia was defending itself and claimed that Ukraine might attack Poland after the war. On Korwin-Mikke's YouTube channel, there are a number of statements that are anti-Ukrainian and perfectly resonate with Russian narratives. In one video, he says that Ukraine has no place in NATO. In another one, he says that Ukrainians are persecuting Christians (referring to the ban on the pro-Russian Moscow Patriarchate Church). In yet another video, he is ironic about trade with Russia, literally mocking the trade sanctions against Russia

He whitewashed Russian history and its actions while demonizing Ukraine. Also Janusz Korwin Mikke is a member of «Konfederacja» party which is far right, anti Ukrainian and almost openly pro Russian.

Janusz Korwin-Mikke has 292 thousand followers on Twitter. His YouTube channel has 79 thousand subscribers. He ran in the 2015 presidential election and came in fourth place.

On October 15, parliamentary elections were held in Poland. The far-right Confederation bloc failed, receiving only slightly more than 7 percent of the vote. The Polish party New Hope, which is part of the Confederation, decided not to nominate Janusz Korwin-Mikke, who is known for his Ukrainianophobic statements, as a candidate in the next election.

The Institute for Media Monitoring, prepared a report in November, the results of which show - in the month under review, as many as 73,000 Polish-language posts and comments were detected that "negatively referred to the Ukrainian community."

The top most popular X (formerly Twitter) accounts (a medium that concentrates more than 90 percent of anti-Ukrainian posts) spreading disinformation about Ukraine and Ukrainians_ include the account of Grzegorz Braun, a member of the Polish Parliament, one of the leaders of the Konfederacja coalition and president of the member party Konfederacja Korony Polskiej.

However, despite attempts to spread pro-Russian narratives, pro-European ideology, not pro-Russian, won the Polish elections.

The oldest Polish publication that "plays along" with Russia

"Myśl Polska" is a socio-political weekly with a national-democratic orientation, founded in 1941. It was closed several times. During the Stalinist period in Poland, Myśl Polska was on the list of magazines banned by the censors. In 2001-2004, the weekly was published under the name "Nowa Myśl Polska". Later it returned to its previous name.

During Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Myśl Polska began to actively promote pro-Russian and anti-Ukrainian views.

The articles of Myśl Polska are actively reprinted by the Russian portal News Front (it is worth adding here that News Front is under OFAC - Office of Foreign Assets Control - sanctions), which is published in Crimea. According to the US government, the News Front was created with the participation of Russian intelligence officers. In addition, former activists of the pro-Russian Zmiana party, such as Mateusz Piskorski and Konrad Renkas, publish articles here.

"Myśl Polska" also actively publishes the work of Russian propagandists, including texts by Kremlin ideologue Alexander Dugin. His articles appear in the newspaper every few months. The publication also popularizes Russian propaganda culture. For example, only a month ago, it published a praising article about the movie "The Best in Hell", which tells the story of the Wagner PMC.

The publication calls itself the oldest Polish magazine. It spreads Russian narratives, demonises Ukraine, and publishes articles praising Putin.

Now the publication is trying to promote campaign materials that Zelensky is ready to negotiate with Russia.

In this context, Myśl Polska, for example, published an article stating that Ukraine is under pressure from the United States to conduct peace negotiations. Another analytical piece says that the initiative in the war at the front is now on the side of the Russians. In addition, Myśl Polska published an interview with the former head of Roscosmos, now a military officer, in which a clear narrative is traced that Russia does not want war and is simply "forced" to continue defending itself against Ukraine

Of course, the publication did not ignore the conflict between Ukraine and Poland over the transit of Ukrainian grain. And in every possible way it "added fuel to the fire" with its materials.

On average, the publication has 180 thousand visits per month on Similar Web, 7 thousand readers on Facebook, and 15 thousand subscribers on YouTube.

"Kresy" who care about Russian propaganda, not the history of their lands

You can also check kresy.pl website. Kresy means hinterlands, or borderlands, indicating former hinterlands of Poland. Their news coverage is quite anti-Ukrainian, conservative and Catholic-focused. They haven't been banned but they are popularly considered pro Russian. One of their masterminds is Isakowicz Zalewski, Armenian Catholic priest.

The main topic that Isakowicz Zalewski is raising is the exhumation of the bodies of the 1943 “Volyn tragedy” and everything related to this history. He criticizes the words of Anton Drobovych, director of the Ukrainian Institute of National Memory. He complains that the police are preventing him from holding events where he demands an apology from Ukraine for the Volyn tragedy. He also periodically addresses Ukrainian church representatives with the question of the burial of Volyn victims.

Kresy.pl keeps spreading anti-Ukrainian propaganda but restrains from pro-Russian statements since February 22.

The Kresy.pl portal was created in 2008 in Poland. It is ostensibly dedicated to the Kresy, i.e. the outskirts of the former Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, which included the western territories of Lithuania, Belarus, and Ukraine. The authors of the site initially wrote about the former wonderful pre-war life in the Kresy, published memoirs and documents of the era, and recorded historical events and personalities.

Since the Maidan in 2013, the portal's rhetoric has changed. The problems of the Kresy faded into the background. Since then, the site has been dominated by Russian propaganda about Banderites and nationalists, emphasizing that the danger from them is even greater than the danger of Russian imperialism. Information was pumped up about certain militants and entire camps of these militants preparing for the armed overthrow of the government in Ukraine. There was also talk of racism on Euromaidan. For the most part, it is about members of the Right Sector and Svoboda movements, as well as the hanging of red and black OUN-UPA flags, as if all this is evidence of racism and anti-Semitism. This information is also in line with Russian propaganda, which has been fanning this myth for years. However, as we can see now, anti-Semitic sentiment in Europe is much more radical, while in Ukraine, where there is the Right Sector, Svoboda, and the red and black flags of the OUN-UPA, there are no anti-Jewish pogroms.

The portal also began to cover military topics. Mostly about the “mighty” Russian army, its latest weapons and its warlike spirit. In particular, there is a lot of daily information about the Russian army in Syria, about its glorious victories and achievements.

This publication, like other anti-liberal media, is worried about the results of the current elections. The liberal opposition gained such a large enough number of votes that the ruling party will not be able to form a mono-majority. However, the Ukrainian topic has not completely disappeared from the pages of this publication. In particular, kresy.pl predicts that the opposition's victory in the elections will improve Ukrainian-Polish relations.

The portal has 455.9 thousand visitors per month, according to Similar Web, 95 thousand likes on Facebook, and 11.4 thousand followers on Twitter.

Pro-Russian politicians and bloggers complete this Russian disinformation picture in Poland. They do not have much support in the political community, and their audience cannot be called massive, however, a certain percentage of Poles believe in their propaganda. The number of people who believe in Russian propaganda, according to a survey by the Warsaw Enterprise Institute is growing. The survey, commissioned by WEI, was conducted in September 2022 and January 2023 with a representative sample of 1,061 Poles, who were asked to respond to eight theses considered consistent with the Kremlin's message. It turns out that in January as many as 41 percent of respondents «strongly agree» or «rather agree» with at least four statements. This is a marked increase compared to September 2022, at which time it was 34 percent. This is how they do their job effectively.

In 2023, Polish President Andrzej Duda approved a bill to establish a commission to investigate Russian influence on Polish politicians. This bill, passed by the parliament, aims to scrutinize potential Russian influence in Polish politics from 2007 to 2022. Critics, however, have raised concerns that the bill could be used for political purposes, specifically targeting opposition politicians. Legal experts have also questioned the bill's constitutionality. The Law and Justice party (PiS), currently in power, supports the bill as a means to ensure transparency regarding Russian influence, particularly following Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022 and the subsequent war and energy crisis​.

According to Kremlin Watchers Movement team, Russian disinformation efforts in Poland have been a significant concern, particularly in the context of Russia's military actions in Ukraine and its broader foreign policy. The Kremlin utilizes disinformation as a tool to achieve several objectives, including weakening Polish-Ukrainian relations, reducing Polish support for Ukraine, and undermining Poland's international position. These disinformation campaigns are diverse, often emotion-based, and aim to create chaos and panic within Polish society. They include various narratives to foment ethnic tensions between Poles and Ukrainians, such as spreading false information about crimes committed by Ukrainian refugees in Poland or misrepresenting Poland's intentions towards Ukraine​​.

Kremlin Watchers Movement team states, in response to Russian disinformation and influence efforts, Polish authorities have implemented measures to safeguard their national interests. From 2015 to 2019, they expelled several foreigners, including Russian diplomats, for undermining Poland's interests. Simultaneously, for about a decade, Russia has been attempting to influence Poland's internal politics, with some success. This poses a significant threat, especially as Russian propaganda targets vulnerable population segments, potentially leading to unforeseen consequences. The Polish government and its institutions are actively combating these threats, but coordinating these efforts effectively across various sectors remains a challenge. The situation underscores the broader risk to Poland, Ukraine, and the entire European Union if Russia gains an upper hand in this information war.