Tusk accuses Russia of fuelling Polish court crisis
Tusk also said authorities thwarted a suspected provocation near the Kaliningrad border overnight, without giving details.
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk on Tuesday blamed Russia and its allies inside Poland for trying to deepen unrest during a standoff over the Constitutional Tribunal, the state-run news agency Anadolu Agency reported.
Speaking at a Cabinet meeting, Tusk said Moscow was working to magnify a dispute over the tribunal's leadership that has turned into an open clash between his government and President Karol Nawrocki.
"We see the activity of Russia and pro-Russian politicians," Tusk said, adding that the moves were taking place both abroad and at home.
He tied the situation in Poland to alleged Russian interference around the US midterm elections, and said Moscow typically exploits existing political fault lines instead of creating them.
Separately, Tusk said that shortly after midnight he was told by the Border Guard about "disturbing movements" near the frontier with Russia's Kaliningrad exclave, including people carrying flashlights.
Authorities quickly deployed forces and prevented what he described as a provocation, he said, though he gave no details on who was involved or what the plot involved.
The tribunal dispute escalated last week after senior judge Anna Korwin-Piotrowska suspended tribunal President Bogdan Swieczkowski and Vice President Bartlomiej Sochanski and took over the court's work.
Nawrocki, an ally of the conservative Law and Justice (PiS) opposition, accused the government of a forcible takeover and cut short a foreign trip to return to Warsaw.
Former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev, now deputy chairman of Russia's Security Council, called the events a "constitutional coup."
Tusk said such remarks showed Moscow was trying to use Poland's internal confrontation for its own ends.
