Pro-Russian Presidential Candidate Grzegorz Braun Is Ready to Bring the Kremlin to Warsaw
Grzegorz Braun, a pro-Russian Polish politician with a well-documented history of Kremlin-aligned rhetoric, is once again running for president and his campaign is as alarming as ever.
He’s known for cozying up to authoritarian regimes, pushing conspiracy-laden narratives, and showing open hostility toward Western alliances. He’s been interviewed by Russian propaganda outlets, praised on state-run media such as Rossiya 1, and has consistently echoed Kremlin narratives.
Now he publicly called the European Union “the enemy” and burned the EU flag in a political stunt straight out of Putin’s playbook.
2015 Presidential Campaign and His Push to Leave NATO and the EU
Braun first entered the national spotlight during Poland’s 2015 presidential race, running an anti-Western, anti-democratic campaign. He called for Poland to withdraw from NATO and the EU—two pillars of Poland’s post-Communist success—and instead advocated forming alliances with Russia’s authoritarian satellites like Belarus, Iran, and China. That’s right: instead of aligning with democracies, Braun wanted Poland to side with dictators.
He barely received just a fraction of the vote, but blamed his loss on “rigged elections.” Despite this early failure, Braun clawed his way into parliament a few years later.
Had he won back in 2015, Poland would likely have been dragged into Russia’s war against Ukraine and the free world by now. And now, he’s back for another shot.
Cozy with Russian Spies
Braun’s ties to Russian operatives aren’t just speculative. They’re documented. During his 2015 campaign, he cozied up with Mateusz Piskorski, founder of the pro-Russian party Zmiana. Piskorski was later arrested on espionage charges, accused of spying for Moscow. In 2018, he posed for a photo in Moscow with Leonid Sviridov—a Russian spy who had been expelled from Poland in 2015. Polish intelligence has had Sviridov on its radar for years.
At least since 2016, the Main Directorate of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation (GRU) has been conducting Operation Ghostwriter with the aim to (as quoted from the official website of the Polish Cyberspace Defense Forces Command):
”Disrupt Poland’s relations with the US and NATO countries. Disrupt Polish-Ukrainian relations. Discredit the aid provided by Poland to Ukraine. Create conditions for the outbreak of social unrest in Poland.”
Read more about Russia poisoning Poland’s infosphere here.
Antisemitic Outbursts
Braun’s record of antisemitism is equally disturbing. In December 2023, during Hanukkah, he barged into the Polish parliament with a fire extinguisher and sprayed it at a menorah, extinguishing the candles in what many saw as a deliberate, hateful act. The backlash was swift and international. His parliamentary immunity was stripped as a result.
But Braun wasn’t done. In January 2025, during a solemn moment of silence in the European Parliament to honor Holocaust victims, he disrupted the ceremony. He was promptly ejected from the chamber.
Grzegorz Braun is not just another nationalist firebrand—he is a threat to Poland’s democratic future, a mouthpiece for Kremlin disinformation, and a politician with a dangerous record of aligning with regimes that view freedom as weakness. His return to the presidential race should alarm anyone who values truth, sovereignty, and the hard-earned unity of the West.