More than 1800 Russians entered Poland on visas issued “without any legal grounds” in the 22 months since the start of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. This was stated by the head of Poland's Supreme Audit Office (NIK) Marian Banas, Politico reports, UNN reports.
Details
On Thursday, the agency published its conclusions on the activities of the Polish Foreign Ministry in the period from 2018 to 2024 during the rule of the previous far-right nationalist Law and Justice (PiS) party, noting a number of violations.
At least from November 2022 to May 2023, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs had a non-transparent and corrupt mechanism to influence certain Polish consuls to speed up the processing of visa applications. This included issuing visas without the applicants' personal appearance
He also questioned the previous Warsaw government's “Poland. Business Harbor,” which encouraged professionals and companies to move to Poland but was canceled by the new pro-Western government of Prime Minister Donald Tusk earlier this year. Banas claims that the visas issued under the program had “no legal basis.
It was the easiest, fastest and cheapest way to enter the territory of Poland and the EU, which was used by more than 1800 citizens of the Russian Federation between March 1, 2022 and December 31, 2023
Polish leader Tusk called the report's findings “devastating.” “After the attack on Ukraine, nearly 2,000 Russians received Polish visas, often in violation of the law and in defiance of sanctions,” the prime minister said.
Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski also expressed regret over the results: “We confirm that the Polish consuls were subjected to scandalous, unlawful pressure,” he said.
У Любліні розпочався набір добровольців до Українського легіону: що треба знати03.10.24, 16:58