A Polish court has sentenced a Russian former opposition activist to seven years in prison after finding him guilty of spying for Russia's FSB security service and taking part in a plot to send a parcel bomb. His wife was given a three-year term for helping him.

Igor Rogov had once presented himself as an ally of exiled Kremlin critics, working as a coordinator for Open Russia, a pro-democracy movement founded by former oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky that Moscow has since banned as "undesirable". His arrest in 2024 stunned people who had considered him a trusted member of their community.

A parcel that gave him away

Rogov's double life came to light after a damaged courier parcel, left unclaimed in a Polish warehouse, was found to contain a homemade explosive device. According to Balkan Insight, which examined the case in detail, Rogov had generated the shipping label for the package, listing himself as both sender and recipient.

Investigators say the parcel held components including liquid explosives, fuses and a power source. Prosecutors said the shipment created what they described as a serious danger to public safety, though it was intercepted before it reached its intended destination.

The bomb plot surfaced only months after a much larger act of suspected Russian sabotage in the Polish capital. In May 2024, fire destroyed the Marywilska 44 shopping centre in Warsaw, a complex housing around 1,400 small businesses, many run by members of the city's Vietnamese community. Poland's prime minister, Donald Tusk, later said investigators had concluded the fire was arson ordered by Russian intelligence services, part of what officials describe as a wider sabotage campaign linked to Moscow since its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

'I was supposed to do what I liked'

During his trial, which was held behind closed doors, Rogov reportedly admitted to his role. According to the Polish outlet Wirtualna Polska, as reported by The Moscow Times, he told the court he had been recruited to work his way into opposition networks and report back to Moscow.

“"I was supposed to do what I liked, climb the ranks of Russian oppositionists, meet new people and eventually report everything to the Federal Security Service."”

The court found Rogov guilty of passing information about Poland-based Russian opposition groups and activists to the FSB, in addition to his role in the parcel bomb scheme. His wife, Irina Rogova, acknowledged in court that she knew of her husband's contacts with the intelligence agency, though she did not plead guilty.

A pattern of infiltration

The case has unsettled Russian exile communities across Europe, many of whom fled to countries such as Poland, Germany and the Baltic states after Moscow criminalised anti-war dissent and independent journalism. Poland hosts one of the largest populations of Russian and Belarusian political exiles on the continent, and its Internal Security Agency, known by its Polish acronym ABW, has repeatedly warned that Russian services are attempting to penetrate these communities.

For European governments already contending with sabotage attempts, cyberattacks and disinformation linked to Russia's war in Ukraine, the Rogov case adds to a growing list of incidents in which individuals presenting themselves as dissidents or activists were later unmasked as intelligence assets. Security officials in Poland, Germany and the Baltic states have documented similar recruitment efforts in recent years, often targeting exile networks precisely because they are seen as trustworthy havens for people fleeing the Kremlin.

Rogov's case, first widely reported by Polish media and later detailed by outlets including Balkan Insight and the Guardian, illustrates how difficult it can be for exile communities to guard against infiltration, even when the suspected agent has spent years building genuine relationships and credibility within the movement he was reporting on.

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