Kidnapping attempt of BPC manager in Moscow

Officers of the Belarusian KGB tried to detained Igor Yevstratov in Moscow.

The scandalous incident took place in the Russian capital. It again confirmed that the Belarusian security service secretly spy on people in Russia being in cahoots with some officers of the Russian special services, Belorusski Partizan reports.

Four men in civilian clothes came up to Igor Yevstratov, a former manager of the Belarusian Potash Company (BPC), as he was boarding a train from Moscow to St Petersburg. One of them showed a Belarusian KGB ID card.

Having made sure they found the right person, the men forced him to get off the train under threats and tried to leave the Leningradski Railway Station with him.

Russian policemen heard his angry exclamations and came up to the group. The whole company had to follow the Russian police officers to a police station. It was found out that the four men were officers of the Belarusian KGB, who for unknown reasons were carrying out investigative activities in Russia, which is prohibited by Russian laws.

The Belarusian security officers showed an arrest warrant for the former employee of BPC. The warrant contained some errors, so lawyers managed to release the detainee. The security officers left the police station empty-handed, the Moscow police told journalists. They were strongly recommended not to have illegal raids in Russia any more.

We remind that four top managers of the Belarusian Potash Company – Oleg Petrov, Konstantin Solodovnikov, Igor Yevstratov and Dmitry Samoilov – were put on the wanted list in connection with criminal cases opened by the Belarusian Prosecutor General's Office under part 3 of article 424 (abuse of power).

The criminal cases were opened against them for “abuse of power for personal gain that inflicted gross harm to the state and public interests of the Republic of Belarus and caused large-scale damage to Belaruskali and BPC”. Vladislav Baumgertner, the chairman of the BPC Supervisory Board, was detained in Minsk and taken into custody in connection with the criminal case. He was later released from a detention facility and placed under house arrest.