Scandal in Poland: more than 1800 Russians received visas in violation of the law and sanctions
11 October 06:18The head of Poland’s Supreme Audit Office said that since the beginning of Russia’s war against Ukraine, more than 1,800 Russians have entered Poland on visas issued “without any legal basis”. This was reported by Komersant Ukrainian with reference to Politico.
Poland’s Supreme Audit Office has published its findings on the activities of the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs from 2018 to 2024 during the previous Law and Justice (PiS) government, revealing several violations.
“At least from November 2022 to May 2023, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs had a non-transparent and corrupt mechanism to influence some Polish consuls in order to speed up the processing of visa applications. This includes issuing visas without the applicants’ personal appearance,” said Marian Banas, head of the Polish Supreme Audit Office.
He also questioned the previous Warsaw government’s programme to encourage professionals and companies to move to Poland, which was cancelled by the new government of Prime Minister Donald Tusk earlier this year. Banas argued that visas issued under the previous programme “had no legal basis”.
“This was the easiest, fastest and cheapest way to enter the territory of Poland and the EU, which was used by more than 1,800 citizens of the Russian Federation from 1 March 2022 to 31 December 2023,” the Polish Supreme Audit Office said in a statement.
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk called the report’s findings “devastating”.
“After the attack on Ukraine, almost 2,000 Russians received Polish visas, often in violation of the law and sanctions,” he said.
Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski also complained about the results.
“We confirm that the Polish consuls were subjected to scandalous, unlawful pressure. This is not new to the current leadership of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and coincides with the results of our internal checks. We confirm that, unfortunately, especially between 2018 and 2023, there was a loss of control over the visa system,” he said.