Warsaw, Poland. The second cold war has produced a lot of paranoia, but some think it is getting way out of hand as Poland now claims it’s favorite son Donald Tusk, is a Russian spy.
A feud between the European Council president and the ruling party in his native Poland has intensified as he arrived in the country denouncing a “witch-hunt” against him.Donald Tusk has been summoned to give evidence to a secretive investigation of Tusk’s ties to Russian intelligence.
Tusk was Polish prime minister from 2007-14. His Civic Platform party is now the main opposition. His chief rival at the time was the nationalist Law and Justice Party which is now in power.
Opposition leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski holds Mr Tusk personally responsible for the 2010 plane crash in Smolensk, Russia, which killed his twin Lech Kaczynski, as well as 95 other poles on board.
The current Polish government has also accused Mr Tusk of abusing his EU position to meddle in domestic affairs. Last month his native Poland was the only one of 28 EU member states to vote against Mr Tusk’s re-election as president of the European Council.
To the visible fury of Polish Prime Minister Beata Szydlo, he was granted another term. Tusk is currently being questioned as part of an investigation into whether two former leaders of the country’s military counter-intelligence service exceeded their authority in agreeing to co-operate with a foreign intelligence service.
According to reports, at stake is whether Mr Tusk – then PM – authorised this alleged agreement with Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB).