Two Russians who “distributed propaganda material” of the Russian paramilitary group Wagner in Warsaw and Krakow have been detained in Poland, the Polish interior minister announced today.

“They were both charged with espionage and arrested,” Mariusz Kaminski announced via the X platform (formerly Twitter) without giving further details.

Poland’s counterintelligence agency said the two Russians, identified as Alexei T. and Andrei G., were arrested on Friday after they had distributed 300 notices in public places of Krakow and Warsaw”, the two largest cities of the country. The notices referred to “recruitment sites” for the Wagner organization.

“The Russians were in possession of more than 3,000 pieces of propaganda material in favor of the Wagner organization, which had been given to them in Moscow,” the agency said.

The two men, who were to receive “more than 500,000 rubles” (about 4,500 euros) for this activity, were expected to leave Poland last Saturday, the same source said.

Polish media reported last week about stickers with the Wagner logo and signs in English that read “We are here – join us,” as well as for QR codes that redirected to a Russian website for the mercenary company in question.

According to the newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza, the stickers were pointed out to the Polish police by residents of Krakow and the capital Warsaw.

Poland had recently warned against possible challenges from the mercenary organization.

Lithuania and Poland have repeatedly warned their NATO allies that Wagner mercenaries may pose as asylum seekers and try to cross the border between Belarus and the EU.

Warsaw plans to deploy around 10,000 troops as a deterrent to its eastern border with Moscow’s ally Belarus.