2026-09-21
51 分钟This is The Guardian.
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A bungled bomb plot in Poland exposed a spy.
But whose spy was he?
By Sean Walker.
Read by Kobna Holtbrook-Smith.
The police came for Igor Rogov because someone had mailed him a bomb-making kit.
The eclectic mix of items, a chrome vacuum flask, a pair of marker pens,
a power bank and a bottle of antifreeze fluid might have seemed innocuous to an untrained eye,
but Poland was on high alert in July 2024. Two months previously,
a shopping mall in Warsaw had burned down in an arson attack and IKEA in neighbouring Lithuania was also set on fire.
Authorities believed it was a sabotage campaign masterminded by Russia's intelligence services,
intended to soak panic and undermine support for Ukraine.
They feared it was only a matter of time before the Kremlin escalated further.
A security officer at the parcel company's warehouse was suspicious enough about the package to call in the authorities,
who arrived with sniffer dogs and special equipment.
X-rays of the marker pens showed they had 1980s Soviet-produced detonators concealed inside,
while the flask had a false bottom containing a sachet of metallic powder.