In 1600, as member of Lew Sapieha's retinue, he played a significant role in the negotiations with the Tsardom of Russia, editing the planned alliance acts between Poland-Lithuania with the Russian state.

In 1602 as District-Governor of Wieliż, he attended the drawing of the border between Poland-Lithuania and Moscovia and later became famous repelling a Russian attack on his own district.

In 1606, as a member of the retinue of Mikołaj Oleśnicki, he escorted Maryna Mniszchówna to Moscow, where he led negotiations for an alliance with False Dmitriy I.

Residents of the city under the leadership of a merchant Kuzma Minin and Prince Dmitry Pozharsky began to besiege the Kremlin.

The commander of the Polish-Lithuanian garrison in the Kremlin, Strus, realizing that there would be no relief of the siege coming from the Polish king Sigismund III Vasa, surrendered on 4 November 1612.

To commemorate the event tsar Mikhail Romanov instituted a holiday named Day of Moscow’s Liberation from Polish Invaders in 1613.

He intensively collected supplies of food and ammunition, and developed an intelligence network to gather valuable information about Moscow's war preparations.

As Palatine-Governor, he commemorated the death of his longtime client – Jan Kunowski, who in 1640 wrote a series of poems dedicated to his late patron.