Spy scandal intended for Russia? :: Charter'97 :: News

Belarusian KGB officers have announced that they had disclosed a network of Polish spies who allegedly acted on the territory of Belarus. Yesterday it was stated on air of Belarusian TV by a deputy chairman of the agency Viktar Veger. As said by him, five persons had been detained. They are former military men who allegedly collected intelligence information for Polish intelligence. As said by the KGB representative, the information mostly concerned condition of the united Air Defence System for Belarus and Russia.

As said by the KGB officer, “spies” allegedly gathered information on strategic sites of the Air Defence System of Russia and Belarus, and firstly, about S-300 anti-aircraft system.

Vegera has emphasized that by their actions “spies” haven’t managed to do harm to defence capability of Belarus.

The most striking thing is how “resident agents” were recruited. A former military man Uladzimir Ruskin told on TV that he had been recruited by Polish intelligence at the territory of Poland. As said by him, Polish customs service found in his car a quantity of alcohol 5 times exceeding the norm. Polish intelligence allegedly offered to overlook the incident in case the military man would become a resident agent in Belarus.

A former head of intelligence of one of anti-aircraft guided missile brigades of Belarus Viktar Bohdan who was detained at his place of service is among the accused too. As the TV channel reported, one of the accused is a citizen of Russia. He went to the FSB (Federal Security Service) of the Russian Federation to give himself up. A criminal action was brought up against all the accused under Article 356 Part 1 of the Criminal Code of Belarus (“treason against the State in the form of espionage”).

The case has been investigated and taken to court.

It seems no coincidence that a former officer of Belarusian Air Defence forces turned out to be a spy; and they all allegedly received information about strategic sites of the Air Defence System of Russia and Belarus, and firstly, about S-300 anti-aircraft system.

As we have informed, the U.S. plans to deploy elements of a missile-defence system in Central Europe which is aimed at countering the threat of a nuclear terror attack from "rogue" threats that include Iran and North Korea. It is planned to deploy American missile-defence systems in Poland, and radars in the Czech Republic.

Russia is unalterably opposed to the plan of Washington, insisting that this step would disrupt the strategic balance and would cause a new arms race. Moscow has warned the U.S. that in case the missile-defence shield would appear in Poland and the Czech Republic, Russian missiles would be retargeted to Europe.