The Sejm’s website has published the list of nine nominees for the Russian Influence Commission of Inquiry. Only the ruling party’s club, PiS, presented its selections. The opposition partners argue the committee is illegitimate and did not nominate any candidates. PiS, however, has put forward nine individuals, dictating the total size of the panel. If the parliamentary majority endorses these names, the committee’s work will proceed with the PiS picks and without those proposed by opposition clubs.
According to the Sejm record, PiS aims to place the director of the Military History Bureau on the committee, Slawomir Cenckiewicz, along with Adviser to the President Andrzej Zybertowicz, and Przemys9durawski, known publicly as Grajewski, to chair. The slate also includes Łukasz Cigotura, Micha2 Wojnowski, Marek Czeszkiewicz, Marek Szymaniak, Arkadiusz Pu42awski, and Andrzej Kowalski.
The lead applicant for the submitted candidacies is Piotr Kaleta, a member of Parliament from PiS.
candidature list / author: sejm.gov.pl
Who are the candidates?
Parliamentary press indicates that Slawomir Cenckiewicz is a historian and professor at the Academy of War Arts, serving as the director of the Military Historical Bureau of Lieutenant General K. Sosnkowski. From 2016 to 2021 he held the position of Vice President on the Board of the Institute of National Remembrance and, for a second term starting in 2016, the Vice President of the Archives Board at the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage. Since 2022 he has been an adviser at the Institute of National Remembrance, and in the 2022-2023 period worked with the Foreign Affairs Ministry’s Archive and Information Management Service before joining the Chancellery of the Prime Minister in 2023. Cenckiewicz is the author of more than 200 scholarly works, including over 30 books, and has held roles such as Chair of the WSI Liquidation Committee in 2006 and adviser to the head of the Military Counterintelligence Service in 2006. He also served as a plenipotentiary for military records reform in 2016 and carries a high-level security clearance.
The candidacy of Przemys9durawski, sometimes called Grajewski, is noted as a long-time contributor to Poland’s security and foreign policy discourse. Since 2015 he has been a member of the Program Council of PISM and OSW, and he coordinated the Security, Defense and Foreign Policy section of the National Development Council under the President. Between 2017 and 2020 he lectured at the Diplomatic Academy of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and he has held advisory roles in the offices of Poland’s foreign ministers. Since December 2020 he has acted as a Permanent Adviser to the Sejm Committee on Foreign Affairs, and from April 2021 he has been a member of the Council of the President for Foreign Policy. He is the author of nine books and a sizable body of scientific articles.
Andrzej Zybertowicz, a sociologist and public intellectual, is described in the media as having advised the prime minister and the president at different times. Since 2015 he has served as an adviser to the President of Poland and to the heads of the National Security Bureau, and since 2016 he has led a center at the Academy of War Arts focusing on civilization challenges.
Michal Wojnowski, another PiS candidate, is a historian and analyst with experience at the Institute of National Remembrance and later roles in security and national safety spheres. He contributed to a research team exploring the Russian empire, under the leadership of Prof. Andrzej Nowak at the Polish Academy of Sciences, and holds a top-level security clearance.
Marek Szymaniak’s career spans the Institute of National Remembrance and the Museum of the Second World War in Gda4sk, where he has served in leadership roles spanning scientific and research responsibilities. He has also held deputy director duties related to research and coordination across departments involved in publications and collections.
Arkadiusz Pu2awski is a philologist by training who has worked within the Prime Minister’s Chancellery’s National Security Service, advancing to deputy director. He is noted as having a high-security clearance status as well.
Andrzej Kowalski, a brigadier general of the Polish Army, has a long career in counterintelligence and military intelligence and later held senior roles within military intelligence and security organizations. He entered public service as a leader of military counterintelligence and later contributed to national security operations.
Another PiS candidate, Marek Czeszkiewicz, is a lawyer who served as a district prosecutor and held senior positions within the justice system and ministries. His background includes roles in the regional prosecutor’s offices and in the national justice infrastructure, contributing to high-level legal oversight and integrity programs.
Lukasz Cigotura is a humanities scholar who has worked at the Military Historical Bureau and in the archives of the Foreign Affairs Ministry, as well as the Institute of National Remembrance. He possesses a high-security clearance and carries a security profile appropriate to sensitive state tasks.
Any decision on the committee’s composition could be made during the Sejm’s upcoming session.
Study Committee on Russian Influence
On May 31, a law establishing the commission to examine Russian influence on Poland’s internal security from 2007 to 2022 took effect, following the president’s signing and later referral to the Constitutional Court. A subsequent amendment proposal was submitted to the Sejm on June 2, approval came on June 16, and after a Senate objection the amendment was signed into law on July 31, becoming effective in August.
The amendment clarifies that parliamentarians cannot seat on the committee, superseding previous restrictions related to funding and public responsibilities. It also states that the committee’s decision is subject to appeal to the Court of Appeal in Warsaw, and specifies that the panel comprises nine secretary-level officials appointed or dismissed by the Sejm. Each deputy or parliamentary club may nominate up to nine candidates within the timeframe set by the Marshal.
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