Danger at NATO’s Eastern Flank: The Return of Old Guard Tactics in Polish Counterintelligence

What happens when a key NATO ally’s counterintelligence service adopts Soviet-style methods? Delve into Poland’s growing internal crisis and its implications for American security.

We often write on our blog about the state of the Military Counterintelligence Service in Poland. You could say it is our favorite topic. Why? In our opinion, it is one of NATO’s key services in the fight against Russian infiltration—extremely important for the security of the entire flank of the alliance, and also crucial for resisting a Russian invasion through Ukraine.

Over the years, this service has behaved in two distinct ways: it either acted softly, even amicably, toward the Russians (during Donald Tusk’s rule, when the 2013 SKW-FSB cooperation agreement was signed) or rose to the occasion under anti-Russian conservative governments, leading to successes and the mass arrest of Russian spies and collaborators.

Currently, with Russian aggression intensifying both in Ukraine and across the European continent—signaling the reawakening of Russian imperialism—the SKW seems to be reverting to its worst patterns of behavior from 2007–2014. It is even beginning to employ typically Russian (Soviet) methods by participating in domestic political struggles.

This image was generated by AI, but considering the rapprochement between Poland and Russia during the first years of Donald Tusk's government (2007-2014), are we now, despite the bombastic declarations of the Polish Prime Minister, facing a return to this type of relations?