PROTAGONISTA: Wojciech Cieśla | On the Trail of the Explosion That Shook Europe, part 1

Описание: In September 2022, an explosion occurred at the bottom of the Baltic Sea. Someone blew up the pipelines of the Nord Stream gas pipeline, which supplied Europe with Russian gas. The news went around the world, but there was desperately little information—there was only talk of a rented yacht and an unknown crew. Speculation grew, while official investigations stagnated and states remained silent.

An international team of journalists embarked on a search. One of them was Polish reporter Wojciech Cieśla, who, in cooperation with journalists from Germany, Denmark, and Sweden, mapped the route of the yacht Andromeda, uncovered fake companies and straw men—and gradually pieced together a mosaic that led all the way to a group from Ukraine. Key, however, was also the inaction of the Polish authorities—as well as the question of whom they were trying to protect.

In the interview with Pavla Holcová, Wojciech Cieśla speaks not only about the details of working on one of the biggest European cases of recent years but also about a professional mistake that destroyed his reputation, and also about how hard it was to rebuild it. An episode about the power of journalistic cooperation, the courage to ask uncomfortable questions—and about a sea where some ships prefer not to turn on navigation.

Wojciech Cieśla
Wojciech Cieśla is a Polish investigative journalist with nearly thirty years of experience. He has worked in leading Polish media such as Gazeta Wyborcza, Rzeczpospolita, Dziennik, and Newsweek Polska.

He is the founder of the foundation Fundacja Reporterów, editor-in-chief of the investigative portal Frontstory.pl, and co-founder of the European journalism network Investigate Europe. In his work, he focuses primarily on themes of abuse of power, corruption, and hidden influences—from domestic Polish politics to cross-border European cases. He has long promoted principles of international journalistic cooperation.

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