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Tusk calls for inquiry into alleged Russian influence on PiS energy policy

Tusk's words came in connection with recent media reports that Russia had a hand in a 2014 tape scandal, in which private conversations between leading members of the then government, led by Tusk, were secretly recorded in a restaurant they frequented.
Radek Pietruszka/PAP

Opposition leader Donald Tusk has called for an investigation into alleged Russian influence over Poland’s energy policy under the present Law and Justice (PiS) government.

Tusk, who is also a former prime minister, told a press conference on Tuesday that only a commission independent from Poland’s justice minister and the PiS leader would be able to clarify allegations of links between Russia and government policy.

Tusk’s words came in connection with recent media reports that Russia had a hand in a 2014 tape scandal, in which private conversations between leading members of the then government, led by Tusk, were secretly recorded in a restaurant they frequented.

The recordings, in which senior politicians, including ministers, were heard bad-mouthing their own government, led to the fall of the government, and the rise to power of the now ruling PiS-dominated United Right coalition.

According to Tusk, Russia may also have had an influence on Poland’s current energy policy.

“Only an investigative commission independent from Justice Minister Zbigniew Ziobro and PiS leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski could find out what kind of influence the Russian secret services exert over PiS’s energy policy,” Tusk said.

He added that one of the signs of Russian influence was the sharp rise in Russian coal imports under the United Right government.

Earlier this week, the weekly magazine Newsweek wrote that one of the taping scandal’s organisers had testified that the tapes had “landed in Russian hands” before their disclosure to the Polish public.

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