BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

16/07/2007

Belarus arrests 4 military officers accused of spying for Poland

MINSK, Belarus (AP) - The Belarusian KGB said it has arrested four military officers who spied for Poland, a NATO member that is critical of Belarus' authoritarian president.

The officers were arrested in Minsk over the past several months and charged with treason, the deputy chief of the Belarusian KGB, Viktor Vegera, said July 15 in televised remarks. Another military officer, a Russian national, gave himself up after the arrests.

"The largest spy network in recent years has been uncovered," Vegera said. No significant information was passed to Warsaw, he said.

Vegera said the head of the group, Vladimir Russkin, was arrested in January while trying to cross into Poland with classified documents and admitted his guilt under interrogation.

Russian state television said Russkin had agreed to cooperate with Polish intelligence after being caught trying to smuggle a large batch of liquor into Poland. The Russian broadcasts included footage from Belarusian TV showing what was described as one of the arrested officers, Major Viktor Bogdan, photographing classified documents minutes before his arrest.

Vegera said the alleged spies used hiding places to pass information and an empty fire extinguisher to transport documents to Poland. He said Polish intelligence was eager to obtain information on Russian anti-missile defense systems located in Belarus, especially long-range S-300 air defense missiles.

"Russkin asked questions about the number and locations of (anti-missile) complexes," Bogdan said in the television footage.

If convicted, the officers could face the death penalty.

The Polish Embassy in Minsk refused to comment.

Stanislav Shushkevich, Belarus's first post-Soviet leader, said Belarus was taking its cues from Russia, which is opposed to U.S. plans to deploy an anti-missile shield in the Czech Republic and Poland.

"Russia is using Belarus to blackmail Poland," Shushkevich told The Associated Press.

President Alexander Lukashenko - described by Washington as the "last dictator in Europe" - accused Poland of working against him before last year's presidential elections.

Lukashenko has cracked down on Belarusian non-governmental organizations and on groups of ethnic Poles in Belarus, saying they were fomenting a pro-Western revolt in an effort to remove him from power.

Last year, Minsk accused Polish diplomats of financing Belarusian opposition groups. In 2004, a Polish military attache was arrested in Minsk on spying charges and expelled several weeks later.

Source:

http://www.kyivpost.com/bn/26938/