DISINFO: Poland uses security mechanisms in a racist way
SUMMARY
The Polish authorities openly aspire to establish a contemporary version of a “country of an emergency state”. They have taken consistent steps towards it since September 11, when the fear of terrorism appeared. Later, the fear of alleged Russian aggression was added to the terrorist threat. It all started in 2008 when Russia was forced to conduct a peacekeeping operation in South Ossetia – the peak of this process takes place after the 2014 events in Ukraine.
Security concerns have become an idol of a new state religion – this tool is used every time when the authorities want to cover their true motivation. The criteria for using this mechanism are clearly racist – the citizens of Arab countries are expelled from Poland because of terrorism in their home states, while the citizens of Russia are expelled because of an “invisible hand of the Kremlin”.
The recent decision of Poland to ban the entry of a Russian journalist to the Schengen area has nothing to do with security concerns – it is simply explained by the desire of the Polish authorities to make his professional work more problematic as he presented the information in a way different from Polish expectations.
RESPONSE
This message is part of the Kremlin's widespread narrative about Russophobic and anti-Russian Poland.
The claim that the Polish authorities are working on the establishment of a “country of an emergency state” and use security mechanisms in a “racist” way expelling Russian citizens for no reason is a conspiracy theory.
In March 2021, the Polish Counterintelligence Service put a Russian journalist Yevgeni Reshetniev on the list of undesirable persons because he was involved in the collection of materials for a Russian anti-Polish disinformation campaign.
On 15 March 2021, the Polish authorities decided to prolong the travel ban for Leonid Sviridov (a Russian journalist working in Poland before 2014). The Polish authorities decided to expel Sviridov to Russia in December 2015 because he was suspected of espionage in favour of the Russian special services (his case has been reviewed since October 2014).
The claim that the Polish decision to expel these Russian journalists is a violation of the freedom of speech or a “systemic discrimination of the Russian citizens in Poland” is not true as these two well-identified people posed a security threat to Poland. Russians living in Poland enjoy a normal life.
See other examples of similar messages claiming that Polish media promote the idea that the Russians are not people, but the “agents of the Kremlin”, Poland started another wave of Russophobic political persecution of the Russian journalists and the Polish authoritarian state may brutally attack any of its citizens for his views and opinions.