BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

19/12/2007

Over 10 spies uncovered in Belarus over a year

MINSK. Dec 19 (Interfax) - The activity of over ten spies has been uncovered and foiled in Belarus in 2007, head of the Belarusian State Security Committee (KGB) Yury Zhadobin told journalists in Minsk on Wednesday.

"Though Belarus' foreign policy has been peaceful, our opponents try to enter our territory in order to collect political, economic, military, scientific, and technical information. The KGB uncovered a military spy ring from the neighboring state [Poland] and foiled the activity of over ten foreign spies," Zhadobin said.

A spy ring of one of the foreign states was foiled "in a classic counter-intelligence operation," he said.

"We created a tight counter-intelligence regime for our, to put it mildly, opponents on the territory of our country," Zhadobin said.

The KGB head forecast that foreign spies will become more active in the period of the 2008 parliamentary elections campaign.

"I am aware of this because I have evidence for this: who, how much money, and through whom will inject the money and what they will try to do. There are no doubts, the relevant services keep track of the situation and make reports," the KGB representative said.

This year, "security agencies foiled the activity of 270 officials who committed corruption related crimes. Nine criminal rings, whose numbered 80 people, that were involved in smuggling, extortions, robberies, thefts, and other serious crimes were eliminated this year," the KGB head said, adding that as a result of activity to guarantee economic security "the state did not sustain the damage of 164 billion Belarusian rubles this year," Zhadobin said.

Source:

http://www.interfax.ru/e/B/politics/28.html?id_issue=11933031