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6 hours ago
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A Russian national charged in Poland with spying for Russian intelligence has admitted to passing information to Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB), Polish media reported Monday, citing case files.
Poland charged Igor R. and his wife Irina last year over allegedly providing Russian intelligence with details about Russian opposition activists living in Poland, as well as individuals and institutions offering them assistance.
Russian media revealed Igor R. was Igor Rogov, an employee of the Open Russia opposition movement, now banned in Russia as “undesirable.”
“I was supposed to do what I liked — climb the ranks of Russian oppositionists, meet new people and eventually report everything to the Federal Security Service,” Rogov admitted in his testimony, according to the Polish outlet Wirtualna Polska.
Investigators also allege that Rogov received a courier shipment containing components for a bomb — including liquid explosives, fuses and a power source. Prosecutors said Rogov created “an imminent danger to the life or health of many people or to property of significant size.”
According to Wirtualna Polska, Igor had told his wife when they moved to Poland after the start of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, that he had been recruited by the FSB.
After Irina reportedly discovered her husband’s affair, she began revealing in private conversations with other Russian emigrants that Igor had been cooperating for years with an FSB officer named Yevgeny.
When questioned by Poland’s Internal Security Agency, Rogov described his collaboration with the FSB as a “personal tragedy,” Wirtualna Polska reported. According to the outlet, Rogov claimed he had been blackmailed, with agents threatening to send his father to the war in Ukraine if he refused to collaborate.
The outlet also reported that during a visit to Russia, Irina handled a package containing Polish goods as a gift at her husband’s request — a package that also included a flash drive with encrypted reports. According to the case files, the drive contained information about individuals who supported Russian opposition activists in Poland.
The outlet said Rogov allegedly described officials from the Polish Foreign Ministry, employees of the National Agency for Academic Exchange and teachers at the University of Silesia who taught Polish to Russian citizens.
If convicted, the two could face life imprisonment
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