Poland on Thursday, May 15, reported attempts to interfere in the presidential election campaign via messages consistent with Russian propaganda. Authorities in Poland, a staunch ally of neighboring Ukraine, have warned in recent months that Moscow might seek to interfere with the May 18 election through cyberattacks and disinformation.
The announcement by NASK, a national research institute specializing in cybersecurity, came just days ahead of the ballot's first round on Sunday. Leading the polls is pro-EU Warsaw mayor Rafal Trzaskowski, who is supported by the governing centrists, followed by nationalist historian Karol Nawrocki, the candidate of the conservative main opposition.
NASK said it had discovered "new information operations aimed at destabilizing the electoral process" in Poland. "The analysis concerned the activity of a network of hundreds of fake accounts on the X network, which in a coordinated manner spread messages consistent with the Russian Federation's propaganda," it said in a statement.
The institute said it had detected the same narratives on Telegram, published by "accounts known for their participation in Russian disinformation activity." It added that the content of the posts mainly concerned subjects polarizing Polish voters, including security, foreign policy, migration and the socio-economic situation.
Since the beginning of the year, NASK said it had identified more than 10,000 accounts in English and Polish that tried to influence the election by claiming there was a threat of "terrorist attacks" the day of the ballot.
Also Thursday, the campaign teams of Poland's two main presidential candidates said they would bring to the attention of prosecutors cases of disinformation and activity against their candidates.
Last month, the ministry of digital affairs said Russian cyberattacks against Poland had intensified. Prime Minister Donald Tusk said his party's computer system had been the target of a cyberattack, which he described as "foreign interference."