Warsaw puts accused GRU agent on trial, Polish media alleges Medvedev dismissed GRU chief as a result

This past Friday, reports the Polish media, Tadeusz J., a Russian citizen, was put on trial in Warsaw on charges of espionage. He was arrested in February 2009, but details of his identity and activities were not made known to the public until January of this year.

"J." is accused of working for Russian military intelligence (GRU) and is believed to have been operating in Poland since the 1990s using a legitimate business as a cover. He had been under surveillance by Poland's Internal Security Agency (ABW) for a number of months before his arrest. The ABW found an encoding device and special recording equipment at his home. "J" is the first GRU agent to be apprehended in Poland in 20 years.

Dziennik Gazeta Prawna reports that "J" belonged to a hunting club whose members included a number of retired Polish generals who treated him as a close confidante. The daily speculates that Russian President Dmitry Medvedev probably used "J.'s" arrest as the reason for dismissing GRU chief General Valentina Korabelnikova in April 2009.

The trial is being held in the Polish Supreme Court, but most of the evidence remains classified. Before the trial "J." asserted his innocence to members of the press. If convicted, he faces up to 10 years in prison.

The fact that a GRU agent could infiltrate the ranks of Poland's retired generals opens up the possibility that infiltration may have played a part in the suspicious downing of President Lech Kaczynski's plane over western Russia on April 10. In addition to Kaczynski and his wife Maria, the following high-ranking military men and civilians perished aboard the president's air force jet: Ryszard Kaczorowski, former last President of Poland in exile; joint chiefs of staff for the Polish army, air force, and navy; the national bank governor, a deputy foreign minister, chief of the National Security Bureau, three deputy parliament speakers, and many others.

There have been no official accusations from Warsaw that Moscow engineered the demise of Poland's anti-communist, pro-USA president. Diplomacy has prevailed.

On October 1, Russian soldiers detained three Polish journalists who attempted to film the crash site, which is still under military control. An official at the Polish embassy in Moscow, Pawel Koc, described the incident as "serious." Even though Russia handed over the plane's "black box" recordings to Poland, festering tensions between the two countries have delayed the signing of a natural gas transit deal.