Polish Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski told the Sejm during a conference on “War for the Mind: Fear, Sabotage, Disinformation” that Russia is waging “cognitive warfare” on Poles and that it even already has a “fifth column” in the country. Everything’s not as clear-cut as he makes it seem, though, so some clarification is required. As regards its “cognitive warfare”, it’s true that Russia produces various information products aimed at reshaping its audiences’ paradigms, just like all countries do.
In Russia’s case, it generally wants them to perceive its foreign policy as non-threatening and its domestic policy as conservative, thus ideally expanding the number of people worldwide that like it. Sometimes “Potemkinism” is employed, which refers to the creation of alternative realities for “strategic purposes” (whatever they may be), but this has already backfired as explained here. More often than not, Russia’s “cognitive warfare” relies on a combination of facts and opinions, less so the aforesaid lies.
Accordingly, there are some people in Poland receptive to Russia’s information products, but this doesn’t make them a “fifth column” by any stretch of the imagination. As was explained here in spring, actual “pro-Russian sentiment” in Poland is extremely fringe, with the manifestation that can even remotely be described as “pro-Russian” just being approval for some of Putin’s policies. Nowadays, however, the ruling liberal-globalist coalition slurs all conservatives, nationalists, and populists as “pro-Russian”.
Sikorski appears to be implying the same by blowing out of proportion Russia’s “cognitive warfare” on Poles and its “fifth column”, the latter of which is actually mostly comprised of the Ukrainian refugees who were detained for committing sabotage allegedly on Russia’s orders. No average Pole, even those that want Poland and Russia to better manage the recent revival of their millennium-long rivalry, is “pro-Russian” in the sense that he’s implying since their motivation is to help Poland and not Russia.
The same goes for the rising number of Poles who are souring on Ukraine and its refugees, the trend of which far predates Zelensky’s glorification of the Volhynia Genocide’s OUN-UPA culprits, who Russia also dislikes. These Poles are tired of Ukrainian refugees being treated as first-class citizens and their Polish compatriots being treated as second-class ones. They’re also disgusted with what Zelensky recently did. Many feel this way even if they still want their Russian rival to suffer a strategic defeat at Ukraine’s hands
Likewise, while it’s long been speculated by the EU that Russia wants to divide the bloc, there are genuine reasons as explained by conservative President Karol Nawrocki here and analyzed here why the German-led EU in its present form is a threat to Polish sovereignty. Those Poles who agree with him aren’t operating under the influence of Russia’s “cognitive warfare” as its “fifth column” but are fiercely patriotic. After all, he himself is on Russia’s wanted list for his role in demolishing Red Army monuments.
With this insight in mind, and recalling how Sikorski’s ruling liberal-globalist coalition is widely expected to lose fall 2027’s next Sejm elections, his warning about Russia’s “cognitive warfare” on Poles and “fifth column” is much more politically self-interested than factual. As was clarified, both veritably exist, but nowhere near the scale that Sikorski misportrayed them as and not in the form that he implied. Outside observers should remember this since his coalition is expected to play the Russia card more often now.
