[18] Zmiana calls for Polish exit from NATO,[19] abolition of capitalism, [21] and establishment of economy based on socialist and communist ideals.

[2] Zmiana was founded in February 2015[23] by Mateusz Piskorski, a geopolitical analyst and former parliamentarian of the far-left populist party Self-Defence of the Republic of Poland.

Piskorski then went on to participate in the 2005 Transnistrian parliamentary election as an international observer; after returning to Poland, he proclaimed that he would work towards a Polish recognition of Transnistria.

[24] In the face of electoral gridlock in 2006, Samoobrona decided to enter a coalition with right-wing parties Law and Justice and League of Polish Families.

ECAG members were frequently invited to regions such as Crimea, Abkhazia, Transnistria, Nagorno-Karabakh, as well as countries such as Belarus, Libya and Syria, as electoral observers.

[28] Zmiana was founded on 21 February 2015 by factions of communist youth organisations, former Samoobrona members, Falanga, as well as minor trade union, socialist, and anti-imperialist movements.

Zmiana's founding congress also included a speech by the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Donetsk People’s Republic, who attended through a video message as he was denied entry into Poland.

Telewizja Polska responded to the accusations, stating that while it did interview far-right and antisemitic personas like Leszek Bubel, these were "products of our [Polish] own backyard", and alleged that Zmiana is Russian-funded and therefore "something else".

Law and Justice is alleged to have been involved in Lepper's death, and it became the ruling party in the 2015 Polish parliamentary election, shortly before Piskorski's arrest.

Political observers noted that the party is influenced by Polish socialism based on the People’s Republic of Poland, as well as by Russian nationalist philosopher Aleksander Dugin.

[2] The party has also been described as socialist-patriotic; in an interview with Polish journalist Jan Herman, Piskorski agreed that it could be considered an accurate description of Zmiana.

[5] According to its ideological declaration, Zmiana is a “democratic, anti-capitalist, patriotic, internationalist, peaceful, and progressive force” which “represents the interests of working people, the unemployed, the youth, and the elderly and pensioners” in liberating Poland from the “domination of the structures of big capital and the imperialist powers” and opposing the ruling “party of the Third World War.”[22] Referencing its name, the party seeks “change, not mere cosmetic surgery, but a deep uprooting of the disgraced structures of the anti-social system”.

As soon as the West, including Poland, supported Bandera's followers in Ukraine, the country plunged into chaos", and "the people of Crimea have had pro-Russian views for a long time.

The party opposes Polish membership in NATO, believing that it creates dependence on the arms production of Western countries, and has dragged Poland into wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Gotowiecki also rejects the allegiations that Zmiana was organized by Russian authorities, noting that the party remains too marginal to be influential in politics.