‘We are here. Join us.’ What the trial of two Wagner Group promoters in Poland reveals about Russia’s covert campaign in Europe

‘We are here. Join us.’ What the trial of two Wagner Group promoters in Poland reveals about Russia’s covert campaign in Europe

In mid-February, a court in Krakow sentenced two Russian citizens to five and a half years in prison for posting hundreds of recruitment ads for the Wagner mercenary group in Polish cities. Convicted of terrorism and espionage, the two men were found guilty of working on behalf of Russian intelligence services as part of what the judge characterized as a “hybrid war” against Poland, carried out amid Russia’s full-scale war in neighboring Ukraine…