Interior minister denies reports of Warsaw buses running on Russian gas

2025-01-14 14:27 update: 2025-01-15, 18:04
Fot. PAP/Leszek Szymański
Fot. PAP/Leszek Szymański
A recent media report purporting that Warsaw has been using Russian liquefied natural gas (LNG) for the city's LNG-powered buses, is untrue, the interior minister has said.

The Wirtualna Polska (WP) online news and entertainment outlet published a report on Monday which claimed that a company that could have tricked the government to be removed from a sanctions list of Russia-linked entities was supplying LNG to Warsaw buses.

Tomasz Siemoniak told the private news channel TVN24 on Tuesday that "there is no Russian gas in Warsaw buses."

"There is embargo on Russian gas," Siemoniak said. "In December, an embargo on LNG was also introduced.

"There is no threat, no risk that Russian gas will be in Warsaw's or any other buses, because no-one is importing it."

Cryogas M&T Poland, a company supplying LNG, was put on the sanctions list due to its links to Russia's energy giant Gazprom. But after the company, which was worth hundreds of millions of zlotys, was sold to the Polish-owned firm Omne Energia for a mere PLN 3 (EUR 0.70), the latter was taken off the list by deputy Interior Minister Czeslaw Mroczek.

Siemoniak said Mroczek's decision "was totally correct," because the company was no longer sanctioned after it stopped being Russian.

However, Poland's Internal Security Agency will scrutinise the new owners, Siemoniak added.

Siemoniak also said the WP report was meant to undermine Warsaw Mayor Rafal Trzaskowski and derail his presidential campaign. Trzaskowski is the centrist frontrunner in the May 2025 presidential election.

Mroczek told the Polsat News television channel on Tuesday that when Omne Energia applied for being removed from the sanctions list in December 2024, there was no proof of Russian links or that "the ownership changes were made for appearances and that the real beneficiary was in fact someone else that the persons quoted."

Mroczek also said that "in the event of any company asset transfers, for example money transfers to Russian shareholders," the National Tax Administration (KAS) would be aware of that. "If that happened, KAS would take immediate action and freeze the company."

He also said that Warsaw buses were powered by "American and Qatari gas."

Adam Stawicki, spokesman for Warsaw's Municipal Bus Company (MZA), sent a statement to PAP on Monday in which he said that the WP report contained untrue information about MZA allegedly purchasing a depot that included an LNG installation owned by a sanctioned company.

He said MZA had bought a property from the Polish company Michalczewski sp. z o.o., but "did not buy any gas installation or any other infrastructure from a sanctioned entity."

"MZA observes strict procedures of verifying contractors," Stawicki wrote. "MZA does not and did not enter into contracts with entities covered by sanctions.

"MZA signed a gas supply contract with the Omne Energia after the company was taken off the sanctions list," Stawicki continued. "The gas supplied by Omne Energia comes from the President Lech Kaczynski gas terminal in Swinoujscie." (PAP)

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