an independent, cross-border journalism initiative dedicated to improving the quality of investigative reporting and independent press in the Visegrad Region
Mateusz Bajek
About Mateusz Bajek
Polish analyst specializing in Eastern Europe. Employed in Esperis Consulting and Political Accountability Foundation. Since 2017 working with Fundacja Reporterów (Reporters Foundation) as an expert.
Central African Republic President Faustin Archange Touadera addresses supporters at a political rally as Russian mercenaries, and Rwandan UN peacekeepers stand guard at the stadium in Bangui, Central African Republic, December 19, 2020. Source: STRINGER / Reuters / Forum
An organisation with links to Russian influence operations organised a trip featuring Hungarian Jobbik politicians and Polish journalists, among others.
Political rally during the presidential campaign in Madagascar. Photo: Skip Russell (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
In November 2018, several Polish activists and journalists from a leftist website joined Russia’s CIS-EMO delegation on a trip to Madagascar to monitor the country’s presidential election. The group of observers included people with links to the Kremlin. Yet instead of acting as observers, they secretly funded the campaigns of several presidential candidates.
It was at the end of the day that we realized: they were cheating us. Suddenly it became clear that in Putin’s Russia, there’s no need to falsify votes in the elections. They know better tricks.