(Reuters) -Belarusian counter-intelligence agents have arrested a Polish national on suspicion of espionage for having in his possession documents related to forthcoming Belarusian-Russian military exercises, media quoted state television as reporting on Thursday.
The state Belta news agency said Belarus-1 television reported that agents from the state security service, still known by its Soviet-era abbreviation KGB, detained the man in the city of Lepel, east of the capital Minsk. A Belarusian national was also detained.
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko is one of Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin’s closest allies and allowed Moscow to use his country’s territory for the 2022 invasion of Ukraine, though he has said Belarusian servicemen will take no part in it.
Belta said the Polish suspect had in his possession a copy of a document outlining the Zapad-25 exercises due to take place this month. He also had Belarusian and foreign cash and a portable telephone SIM-card registered to someone else.
“There is irrefutable evidence of the Polish citizen’s espionage activities,” Belta said. “A few minutes before his arrest, he received a secret military document. All of this was captured on video.”
Belta said he had been trying to recruit the Belarusian national in his company and offered him money and small gifts.
Belarus and Poland have long had strained relations over a number of issues related to Lukashenko’s support for Russia in the Ukraine conflict and his crackdowns on dissent.
The Zapad exercises, held every two years in either Belarus or Russia, are viewed with interest by Western countries because of Belarus’s proximity to three neighbours that are part of the NATO alliance — Poland, Latvia and Lithuania.
Lukashenko, in office since 1994, has drawn closer to Putin in recent years, particularly after receiving the Kremlin’s backing during major 2020 street protests by demonstrators accusing him of rigging his re-election to a fifth term.
Russia has moved tactical nuclear weapons from its own borders into Belarus.
(Reporting by Reuters)
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