A woman suspected of helping wage a Moscow-backed “information war” against Poland was involved in organising anti-Ukrainian initiatives funded by a Russian oligarch, a website has reported.

Polish security services said earlier this week they had detained a Russian citizen and banned four people from entering the country after cracking down on a network waging a “hybrid and information war” masterminded by Moscow.

A security services spokesman warned on Thursday that Russia was trying to destabilise Polish society and politics.

The detained woman was named by Polish officials as “Yekaterina C.”

The polukr.net website reported that the woman is a friend of Belarusian citizen Aleksander Usowski, who it said is known in Ukraine for receiving EUR 100,000 in 2014 from a Russian oligarch for the organization of anti-Ukrainian activities in Poland, Slovakia and Hungary.

The polukr.net website reported that in Poland, Usowski contacted people close to Mateusz Piskorski, a political activist who in 2016 was detained by the Internal Security Agency on suspicion of espionage for Russia.

“Yekaterina C.” was detained by the same agency, according to Stanisław Żaryn, a spokesman for the country's security services chief.

Żaryn said earlier this week that the agency had obtained information indicating that Russia was “not only inspiring Polish citizens to take specific actions against Poland and in the interests of Russia, but also financing their activities.”

(pk)

Source: polukr.net