Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) has found itself at the center of a media scandal after publishing a video regarding the detention of two Polish citizens in the Kaliningrad region on suspicion of espionage. The clip, distributed by state media, showed a fragment of a WhatsApp chat dated May 22, 2025, in which, according to the agency, an «agent» discussed the appearance, age, and rank of a border official with a «handler». However, the published screenshots immediately sparked a wave of irony and professional analysis in the Polish-language segment of social network X: native speakers and linguistic experts discovered signs of poor-quality machine translation in the text, incompatible with genuine conversational correspondence.
«Robić rozmowy»: A Turn of Phrase That Doesn't Exist in Polish
The key argument supporting the artificial nature of the published dialogue was the non-existent verb phrase «robić rozmowy», which was rendered as «communicates» in the FSB's translation. Polish language specialists emphasized that such constructions are used neither in oral nor written speech by native speakers. In addition, the text contained gross spelling errors and unnatural sentence structures characteristic of low-quality automatic translation. One native Polish speaker interviewed by the publication bluntly stated: «No, this doesn't sound like native Polish. It looks like a translation, especially the green messages. The white messages sound more natural». Another expert, who has lived in Poland for over a decade, added: «A Pole simply didn't write this. Such turns of phrase are not used».
The FSB Version: Espionage for Warsaw
According to the official position of the Russian agency, the detainees were gathering and transferring information to Polish intelligence about the personnel and facilities of the Russian Ministry of Defense in the border region. According to court materials, both arrestees are Polish citizens; criminal cases under the espionage article have been opened against them, and they are in custody. The FSB also reported that official warnings about probable contacts with Polish special services were issued to seven Polish citizens and three Russians. Thus, the agency presented the detention as the result of a targeted counterintelligence operation, but the quality of the «evidence» attached to it cast doubt on the entire narrative.
Context: Kaliningrad and Information Pressure
Over recent years, the Kaliningrad region has remained one of the most tense border zones, where Russian special services regularly report «spy cases» involving citizens of NATO countries. The publication of such materials amid the ongoing conflict in Ukraine and the aggravation of relations between Moscow and Warsaw is perceived by observers as an element of information pressure and a demonstration of «counterintelligence work». In this case, however, instead of strengthening confidence in the FSB's statement, the published screenshots with clear traces of machine translation provoked the opposite effect: instead of confirming the seriousness of the case, the agency ended up in a position where its own materials raise questions of authenticity.
What This Says About the Agency's Work Quality
For a security service whose reputation is built on the accuracy and reliability of presented materials, publishing correspondence with obvious signs of forgery or incompetent translation represents a serious reputational failure. Independent observers point out that such episodes undermine trust in subsequent FSB statements about «spy cases», as viewers and readers begin to doubt the authenticity of all subsequent «evidence». In conditions where both sides of the conflict actively use the information field, the quality and reliability of published materials become not just a technical parameter, but a key factor in the perception of the agency's entire line.
