Robert Michniewicz: “Partnerzy. Zemsta” (Partners: Revenge, 2024)

The work

A member of the Polish government, the leader of a nationalist party, is on holiday with his family in the Canary Islands when he receives an offer of cooperation from a Spanish foundation secretly working for Russian intelligence. Barbara Szymańska and Piotr Adamski of the Foreign Intelligence Agency travel to Fuerteventura; they do not know that Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service has been ordered to eliminate them, and that a killer is on their trail.¹

Meanwhile, Russian agents are building a network of influence among Polish politicians. The publisher lists this book as the second volume of the “Partnerzy” series.^1,2

The real background

Russia’s SVR is a real foreign intelligence service. The glossary describes the recruitment of politicians through intermediaries such as foundations under the entries agent of influence and intermediary; in Poland, protection against the activities of foreign services is one of the tasks of the special services.³

What is accurate and what is invented

The mechanism is real: under the statute, the Foreign Intelligence Agency identifies external threats to the security and independence of the state and operates outside the country, and inside Poland only in connection with its activities abroad; keeping watch on a politician in the Canary Islands fits this logic.³

The minister, the foundation, the island of Isla Pequenia and the order to eliminate the Polish officers are fiction. We found no source pointing to a model in a real case, and we assume no such link.¹