Allied Intelligence — 2026-08-30

Czech PM Babis Criticizes BIS for Failing to Alert Him About Disinformation Campaign Targeting Czech-Polish Relations

BLUFPrague's dissolved strategic communications capacity and fractured attribution consensus leave Czech-Polish information space exposed to further hybrid probes with no rapid-response mechanism in place.

Prime Minister Andrej Babiš told Czech Television he learned only from media reports of a disinformation campaign alleging Polish territorial claims on Czech land, including a fake profile of the Czech ambassador to Poland and a spoofed Czech Radio website, and said he convened an emergency session of the State Security Council to fault intelligence services for not informing him first or informing him late 12. President Petr Pavel called the campaign a deliberate provocation and said he has no information tying it to Russia, while noting Moscow has run similar destabilizing operations before 13. Deputy PM Karel Havlíček said Russian direction "would not surprise" him, and Interior Minister Lubomír Metnar did not rule out foreign or hybrid involvement, including by Russia 12. Opposition MP Jan Lipavský linked the intelligence lag to the government's earlier dissolution of its strategic communications department 12.

Analysis
Babiš's public rebuke of BIS exposes a gap between intelligence collection and executive notification protocols rather than a mere personnel dispute; dissolution of the government's strategic communications department left Prague without a rapid-response channel to counter the fake ambassador profile and spoofed Czech Radio site before they gained traction. Pavel's and Havlíček's divergent hedges on Russian involvement, one declining to link Moscow, the other calling it unsurprising, indicate the security apparatus lacks converged attribution rather than a coordinated line, and the convergent Czech reporting rests partly on a shared domestic wire rather than fully independent verification. Babiš's blame of the services may instead serve a domestic political purpose, deflecting scrutiny from his own government's decision to gut that unit, and the episode will pressure his government to restore dedicated counter-disinformation capacity ahead of further hybrid probes against Czech-Polish ties.

4 sources

Babiš vyčetl zpravodajcům pozdní informování o dezinformacích - ČeskéNoviny.cz (ČTK)
Babiš vyčetl zpravodajcům, že se o dezinformacích o Polsku dozvěděl až z médií - ČT24 (Česká televize)
Babis criticises intelligence services over Polish territorial claims disinformation - Radio Prague International
Babiš vyčetl zpravodajcům, že se o dezinformacích o Polsku dozvěděl až z médií - Aktuálně.cz