Ryszard Schnepf
Ryszard Schnepf (1951) is a Polish politician and diplomat.
Early life
Schnepf was born in Warsaw, Poland on 22 September 1951, to Polish mother, Alicja Szczepaniak-Schnepft (born in 1930), recognised as Righteous among the Nations and Jewish father, colonel Maksymilian Schnepft (1920−2003), who until 1968 was head of the communist military office (Studium Wojskowe) at the University of Warsaw. There were numerous and strident student protests against the presence of such an ideologically motivated special unit at the University and of colonel Schnepf. On March 30, 2016 one of the leading weeklies in Poland Gazeta Polska revealed in a front page article[1] that colonel Maksymilian Schnepf was a Soviet spy (code named "heron") while serving as a military attache at the Embassy of Poland under communist rule in 1954. The weekly published a top secret document signed by Soviet colonel Konstantin Iwanow on April 16, 1954 regarding the secret mission of Maksymilian Schnepf while in Washington. Colonel Iwanow worked for Soviet secret service GRU and was head of military intelligence in Poland 1951-1955.
Career
1991-1996 he served as Ambassador to Uruguay and Paraguay.
From 2007 to late 2008 he served as the under-secretary of state of Poland, as part of the Foreign Ministry.[2]
On Jan. 14, 2013, Ryszard Schnepf presented his credentials to U.S. President Barack Obama in a formal ceremony at the Oval Office, marking his official recognition as Ambassador of the Republic of Poland to the United States.[3]