By Olha Hembik | 2026-04-17

Russia's institutional presence in Poland is collapsing -- consulate by consulate, building by building, cultural center by center.

In the span of a few months, Warsaw has cut off utilities to a former Russian consulate in Gdańsk that Moscow refuses to vacate, reclaimed the Soviet-era compound locals called "Szpiegowo" (Spyville) and watched its last remaining Russian cultural institution suspend operations.

What looks like a series of discrete diplomatic disputes is, in practice, the systematic dismantling of the infrastructure Russia used for decades to project influence, gather intelligence and spread propaganda on Polish soil.

The Russian Center for Science and Culture, known internationally as a "Russian House," announced the suspension of its Warsaw operations on its Facebook page earlier this year. Administrative functions, including the allocation of university quotas for Polish citizens, will transfer to Budapest. Hungary subsequently confirmed the arrangement. The move drew little official comment from the Russian Embassy. It did not need to. By then, the center had already made itself impossible to ignore.

Not the first curtain call

The center had already suspended operations once after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, when its Gdańsk branch also shut down. But it resumed activity in 2025, hosting lectures, exhibitions and events for Polish citizens and the Russian diaspora.

That comeback proved short-lived and controversial.

In June, the center held a lecture titled "Russophobia in Poland." In September, it screened "Russophobia: A History of Hate," a film produced by the RT propaganda channel, which operates under European Union (EU) sanctions. The center ignored those sanctions. The film portrays Ukrainians as Nazis, accuses Lithuanians of murdering Jews in Nazi camps during World War II, and frames European criticism of Russia as centuries-old bigotry.

The most explosive event came December 4, when the center hosted propagandist Evgeny Tkachev for a lecture titled "Five Years Before World War II: Pacts in Europe." Tkachev argued that pre-war Poland was a Nazi state and that modern Poland practices "systemic Russophobia." He described critical statements by Polish politicians, including Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski and opposition figures Karol Nawrocki and Jarosław Kaczyński, as the product of that indoctrination. He also claimed Russia is now the "guarantor of Poland's borders" and that Germany still considers certain Polish territories its own.

Tkachev represents the Russian Znanie (Knowledge) Society, an organization that promotes Kremlin ideology through education programs in Russia and abroad. The Znanie Society is under sanctions in EU member states, Switzerland and Monaco.

"Russia sows discord, creates fakes, and orchestrates provocations and sabotage across Poland and Europe," journalist and UA Future foundation founder Piotr Kaszuwara told Kontur. "By manufacturing these internal threats, it aims to distance European society from the Russo-Ukrainian war and halt aid to Ukraine."

Intelligence agencies notified

The backlash was swift. "Putinists, get out of Warsaw!" wrote Krzysztof Brejza, a Civic Platform (PO) lawmaker and member of the European Parliament (EP), on X after the December lecture. He said he had notified the Polish criminal police and the Internal Security Agency (ISA) about what he called criminal activity at the center. "If this institution, located in the very heart of the capital, is to serve as a mouthpiece for Kremlin propaganda, then the intelligence services and investigators must launch an immediate inquiry," Brejza said.

Polish intelligence services spokesperson Jacek Dobrzyński confirmed that notifications related to the lecture had been forwarded to the ISA, the Warsaw District Prosecutor's Office, and the Institute of National Remembrance (INR).

Civil society added pressure. The organization Democracy Action gathered more than 6,500 signatures on a petition calling for the closure of what it described as a "propaganda and disinformation mouthpiece." The Union of Ukrainians in Poland monitored the center's social media, filing complaints over posts referencing "Russian Crimea" and "DPR cuisine."

"People working for Russia have a vested interest in destabilizing Poland," Jerzy Rejt, an activist for the Ukrainian minority and former chairman of the Union of Ukrainians in Poland, told Kontur. "The Kremlin is trying to spread disinformation here and to plant spies to act against Poland."

The end of Szpiegowo

The Russian House suspension is part of a broader pattern. Russian Houses are overseen by the state agency Rossotrudnichestvo and, despite sanctions, continue to operate in Hungary, Belgium, Serbia, Czechia, Italy and the United States. But across Europe the network is shrinking: operations have been suspended in Romania, Denmark and Slovenia, and Moldova has scheduled the closure of its Russian House for summer 2026, with Chișinău authorities calling it an "instrument of hybrid warfare."

In Poland, the retreat has been particularly stark. Russia's consulates general in Poznań, Kraków and Gdańsk were shuttered over Russian sabotage operations on Polish soil. The Gdańsk standoff turned pointed in early April, when Polish utility providers cut electricity and heating to the former consulate building after Russia refused to pay accumulating bills, or hand back the property. Moscow has kept a single administrative employee on site, insisting the building belongs to Russia. Warsaw rejects that claim. Russia responded to the earlier consulate closures by shutting Polish consulates in Saint Petersburg, Kaliningrad, and Irkutsk.

Anna Ruda, an activist with the Euromaidan-Warsaw initiative who has monitored the Warsaw center since 2013, said the center used cultural programming as cover. She recalled an event called "From Russia with Warmth" in which a Russian artist visited a Warsaw kindergarten.

"The children and teachers were delighted, and images of the toddlers were subsequently used to polish Russia's international image," Ruda told Kontur. "Meanwhile, the aggressor state has killed hundreds upon hundreds of children in Ukraine and abducted tens of thousands more, stripping them of their parents, their identity, and their childhood."

Ruda believes the center has left Poland for good and called for its website and Facebook page to be blocked as sources of propaganda.

In January 2025, after years of litigation, the City of Warsaw reclaimed the Szpiegowo compound at 100 Jan III Sobieski Street, a complex that had housed Soviet and Russian diplomats and intelligence operatives since the 1970s. It will be converted into residential apartments. The Russian Center for Science and Culture was the last Russian institution still operating in Poland outside the embassy. Now, only the embassy remains.