Russians in Poland. They pretend to be Ukrainians and business is booming

More and more Russians do business in Poland. According to data collected by "Rzeczpospolita", their percentage increased by as much as 40 percent over the year. As you can see, Polish sanctions blocked only some of the Kremlin's largest businesses.

According to "Rzeczpospolita", only three Russian oligarchs withdrew from Poland after the sanctions were introduced. These are Viktor Vekselberg, Mikhail Fridman and Alexei Mordashov. However, the vast majority of entities subject to sanctions continue to conduct business in the country on the Vistula River. Over 400 new Russian-owned companies appeared within a year.

The number of active and suspended companies in which an entrepreneur is a person with Russian citizenship is currently 1,732. However, in 1,315 cases these are "companies run by persons with exclusively Russian citizenship". Such data were made available by the Ministry of Development and Technology in Poland.

I believe this is an underestimate. I know cases where in Poland representatives of Russian capital, having a Ukrainian passport, purchase shares and shares without being disturbed by anyone. This also includes Russian companies in Poland. This is, of course, a camouflaging action, says Andrzej Sadowski, economist and president of the Adam Smith Center.

According to Sadowski, the relevant services should investigate takeover transactions of companies in Poland. He adds that the sanctions are not tight, they can be neutralized, and the pole method "is known and widely used".

Polish services continue to add new entities to the sanctions list – this usually happens only after journalists reveal facts about connections between Russian companies and the Kremlin.