Full text
Keep our news free from ads and paywalls by making a donation to support our work!
Notes from Poland is run by a small editorial team and is published by an independent, non-profit foundation that is funded through donations from our readers. We cannot do what we do without your support.
Poland’s prime minister, Donald Tusk, says that they are “99% certain” that fugitive opposition politician Marcin Romanowski is in Transnistria, a breakaway region of Moldova that has close links to Russia.
Last week, judicial authorities in Poland confirmed that they had received a letter purportedly from Romanowski, who is wanted in Poland for 11 alleged crimes committed while he served as a deputy justice minister in the former national-conservative Law and Justice (PiS) government.
In the document, Romanowski claimed to be in Transnistria and requested safe passage back to Poland. However, as the authenticity of the letter had not been confirmed, some media outlets speculated that the politician may not, in fact, be in Transnistria.
Meanwhile, the Moldovan authorities quickly announced that they had no record of Romanowski travelling to Transnistria, which is a landlocked territory that only has borders with Moldova and Ukraine and operates no commercial passenger flights.
A former government minister who fled criminal charges in Poland appears to be in Transnistria, a breakaway region of Moldova that has close links with Russia.
Marcin Romanowski's whereabouts have been unknown since he left Hungary earlier this year https://t.co/MPWroFVbMe
— Notes from Poland 🇵🇱 (@notesfrompoland) August 13, 2026
Speaking on Tuesday morning, Przemysław Nowak, spokesman for Poland’s National Prosecutor’s Office, said they have “still not confirmed” the veracity of Romanowski’s claim to be in Transnistria, reported broadcaster RMF.
However, shortly afterwards, speaking ahead of a meeting of his cabinet on Tuesday, Tusk said he wanted to address the issue given there has been “a great deal of speculation and misinformation regarding Mr Romanowski and his whereabouts”.
“I can say that the intelligence services of other countries in the region with which we cooperate have confirmed to us the information that Mr Romanowski is 99% certain – I say that just in case – to be in Transnistria, in Tiraspol,” he continued, referring to the capital of the breakaway region.
"Pan Romanowski znajduje się na 99 procent w Naddniestrzu. Chyba nie trzeba tu komentarzy"
Donald Tusk podczas posiedzenia rządu ⤵️ pic.twitter.com/muVQVKrOTs
— tvp.info 🇵🇱 (@tvp_info) August 18, 2026
Transnistria is a narrow strip of land in eastern Moldova that sought to become a separate state in the early 1990s as the Soviet Union collapsed, fighting a war between 1990 and 1992.
Today, the territory, which has a population of around 360,000, operates as a de facto state but is not recognised by any other country. Its flag and national emblem feature the Soviet hammer and sickle.
Transnistria has close ties with Russia, which maintains a military “peacekeeping” force there. Various experts and former intelligence officials have noted that it would be impossible for Romanowski to enter without Russia’s approval.
Click here to help us continue providing news free from paywalls and ads
The fact that Romanowski appears to be hiding there has led to criticism of PiS, the party Romanowski still technically serves as an MP and which publicly takes a strongly anti-Russian position.
“If it is true that [Romanowski] is in Transnistria, a republic not recognised by anyone, de facto controlled 100% by Russia, then it must have happened through and with the participation of Russia,” said defence minister Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz last week.
“Escaping under the Russian umbrella is the worst possible thing, because not only are they cowardly, but they are also joining the enemy of Poland,” he added.
In his remarks today, Tusk said that Romanowski’s likely presence in Transnistria “speaks for itself regarding not only Mr Romanowski but the entire political group that covered up for and benefited from such people, and continues to cover up for them”.
PiS politicians have largely avoided commenting, noting that it has not been confirmed that Romanowski is in Transnistria. However, deputy leader Przemysław Czarnek last week admitted that, if Romanowski did trael there, he would have “crossed a line”.
Nie wyprzedzajmy faktów – powiedział poseł PiS Zbigniew Kuźmiuk, pytany, czy Marcin Romanowski może zostać zawieszony w partii. https://t.co/IQzuS8Ad7O
— tvn24 (@tvn24) August 14, 2026
Romanowski served as a deputy justice minister in the former PiS government from 2019 until 2023, when the party lost power to a new ruling coalition led by Tusk.
In 2024, prosecutors announced that they wanted to charge him with 11 crimes, including participating in an organised criminal group and using crime as a source of income. However, he instead fled to Hungary, where he was granted asylum by the then-government of Viktor Orbán, a PiS ally.
When Orbán lost power earlier this year, his successor, Péter Magyar, promised to extradite both Romanowski and Zbigniew Ziobro, the former PiS justice minister who had also fled criminal charges in Poland and been granted asylum by Orbán .
However, as Magyar was sworn in as the new prime minister, Ziobro fled to the United States , where he remains, and Romanowski disappeared, leading to months of speculation as to his whereabouts. Both politicians deny the accusations against them and claim to be victims of political persecution by Tusk’s government.
Poland has formally asked the US to detain and extradite former justice minister @ZiobroPL , who faces multiple criminal charges.
He denies wrongdoing and calls the case political revenge https://t.co/BXdQgWm61q
— Notes from Poland 🇵🇱 (@notesfrompoland) July 27, 2026
In his comments on Tuesday morning, Nowak said that prosecutors had found “no grounds whatsoever” to approve Romanowski’s request for safe passage to Poland.
He noted that “t he suspect has evaded legal proceedings, questioned the legality of the authorities’ actions, left Poland and then Hungary to avoid arrest, and publicly declared his lack of intention to return to the country due to the ongoing criminal proceedings against him”.
Polish prosecutors are still, however, attempting to confirm Romanowski’s whereabouts and secure his extradition to Poland to face justice. He is subject to a European Arrest Warrant. However, that applies only in EU countries, and Moldova is not a member of the bloc.
Notes from Poland is run by a small editorial team and published by an independent, non-profit foundation that is funded through donations from our readers. We cannot do what we do without your support.
Main image credit: KPRM/Flickr (under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 )
Comments
No comments yet — be the first to weigh in 👇
No comments yet. Be the first!