Poland jails former Russian opposition activist and his wife for spying

A Polish court on Thursday jailed a former Russian opposition activist and his wife for spying for Moscow and also accused them of organizing a parcel containing explosives.

The authorities in Warsaw have warned of Russian sabotage acts in Poland since the start of the war in neighbouring Ukraine more than four years ago.

According to court documents seen by AFP, Russian citizen Igor R. -- identified by Russian media as Igor Rogov -- was jailed for seven years while his wife Irina was sentenced to three years.

The couple -- living in Poland since the start of Moscow’s 2022 Ukraine invasion -- were sentenced in the southern city of Katowice.

Poland said Rogov -- previously an activist for the anti-Kremlin group Open Russia -- had been spying for Russia’s FSB security services, gathering information on Russian opposition members and organisations who support them.

According to Polish media, Rogov appeared in court holding a poster with slogans against Russian President Vladimir Putin’s rule.

The sentencing came after a closed-door trial, with Warsaw citing national security reasons.

The couple have been in detention since their arrest two years ago.

The court said Rogov had spied for the FSB between February and August 2022, passing on data on an encrypted device to his wife, who was due to transfer it to Russian intelligence officers.

The prosecutors also said Rogov had in July 2024 -- along with two Ukrainians and another Russian -- sent and arranged the pickup of a parcel containing explosives through a courier company.

They said the package was intercepted by Polish security services at a courier company warehouse in Poland’s Lodz region.

Before Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, Rogov was an opposition figure based in Russia’s Saransk, working for the organisation of the late Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny since 2017.

He later joined the opposition group Open Russia, backed by exiled oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky.