Poland has put a Russian opposition activist on trial in the first known espionage case against a political dissident in Europe since Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, exposing the extent to which the FSB has sought to plant long-term informants inside exile communities.

Igor Rogov, an exiled activist-turned-student, is facing charges in the southern city of Sosnowiec for alleged involvement in a bomb plot and for spying on fellow Russian exiles, "Hvylya" reports, citing an investigation by Politico. Authorities also accuse him of gathering intelligence on Polish government officials and university staff who were helping emigrants settle into new lives. According to the indictment, Rogov was recruited by the FSB several years before his departure and continued his role as an informant after emigrating.

Andrei Soldatov, a leading expert on Russian intelligence, said the case fits a broader pattern in which Moscow uses informants both for gathering intelligence on vulnerable exile communities and for sowing distrust among them — a strategy he described as a guaranteed payoff regardless of the outcome, especially after the expulsion of dozens of spies from European countries left Moscow short of other options.

Rogov's arrest has already had that corrosive effect. Artyom Vazhenkov, an opposition activist who was jailed with Rogov in Belarus after an anti-government protest in 2020, said he found it difficult to believe his former companion could have been working for the Russian government. Rogov had helped him "stay alive and not be beaten to death" in detention, he said.

Anastasia Shevchenko, a prominent opposition politician who knew Rogov, described the broader fallout. "We live in an atmosphere of mistrust," she said. "And because of the efforts of the Russian authorities, this mistrust towards each other is growing and growing." The uncertainty over whom to trust has made it "impossible" to work, she added.

Russian authorities continue to open criminal proceedings against Kremlin critics even in absentia, labeling them "extremists" or "terrorists." The FSB's logic, Soldatov explained, is that while today's exiles may appear powerless, so did Vladimir Lenin before 1917.

"Hvylya" also reported on how Hungary's opposition accused Orbán of inviting Russian spies to interfere in domestic elections.