Opposition activist reported to KGB for one year. What is known?
According to Malanka Media, the opposition has been repeatedly infiltrated by an agent of the Belarusian security and intelligence agencies – the Deputy Head of the KGB Investigation Department, Kanstantsin Bychak, spoke at a security seminar in Warsaw.
On Saturday, November 18, the “Seminar on Physical, Financial, and Digital Security” took place at the Belarusian Youth Hub in Warsaw. The seminar was organized by Aleh Aksiоnau, an activist of the Belarusian Christian Democracy (BCD) party. The designated “sponsor” of the event, representing the European Court of Auditors, was supposed to deliver a speech during the seminar. However, the Deputy Head of the KGB Investigation Department, Kanstantsin Bychak, ended up addressing the audience instead. On behalf of the KGB, he expressed gratitude to Aleh Aksiоnau ”for a long and fruitful collaboration” and urged seminar participants “to come forward before the relevant authorities, acknowledging and repenting for any endeavors perceived as a threat to Belarusian statehood.”
Propagandists celebrated a purportedly successful KGB operation on the very same day. According to the narrative from the propaganda channel, Aleh Aksiоnau has allegedly been collaborating with the KGB for a year, all the while believing he was working for the European Court of Auditors. The BCD activist Aleh Aksiоnau reportedly responded to a freelance auditor job vacancy at the European Court of Auditors a year ago. The role involved gathering information on the activities of the Belarusian democratic forces, conducting audits on grant utilization, and submitting comprehensive reports that included photo, video, and audio materials on events. They requested special attention to be given to closed-door meetings. It was revealed that the so-called “members” of the European Court of Auditors were, in fact, Belarusian security and intelligence agencies, who also happened to be the sponsors of the seminar.
The Belarusian Youth Hub team acknowledges that Aleh Aksiоnau, the BCD activist and organizer of the event, was not observed engaging in any suspicious actions. However, he has not been involved in the daily activities of the Hub.
“Upon Mr. Aksiоnau’s request, they provided a hall and technical equipment for the event, making it open and public. Anyone could attend it without registering or submitting personal information. Announcements were posted on various platforms, including our social networks. The participation in such events is legal in both Poland and Belarus. Since there were no participant lists, no one, including propagandists, could obtain them,” commented the Belarusian Youth Hub.
Aleh Aksiоnau commented to Euroradio that he reported to the KGB, believing he was in communication with an employer from the European Union.
“There are no underground or secret lists, as the KGBists try to show. All this information is publicly available. It’s an ordinary, standard sheet with several questions. The primary one concerns the number of participants, along with a breakdown of funding items and how the funds were utilized. In reality, I stated that I had no information on all these points, and indeed, I made no effort to obtain or inquire about it. The number of participants – reported as a certain number, validated as the same number,” Aksiоnau explained.
A total of five reports were drawn up as explained by the activist. Regarding the lists of participants with a comprehensive record of everyone by last name, Aksiоnau asserts that such lists did not exist. After all, the events were open, announced, and covered in the media. Aksiоnau refutes and rejects the propaganda statement that he also made voice recordings of meetings. He is going to publicly explain this situation later.
This is not the first instance of security and intelligence agencies infiltrating the democratic forces structures.
Recently, propagandists proudly highlighted a similar successful operation. This time, Volha Kavalkova turned out to be a victim. The politician communicated with a propagandist who pretended to be Mikhail Khodorkovsky’s “assistant”. The narrative did not achieve the level of success desired by the propagandists, yet, it once again prompted to think about security issues within the opposition ranks.
Certainly, the scandal involving the Black Book of Belarus, infiltrated by Artur Haiko, an agent of the Main Directorate for Combating Organized Crime and Corruption (GUBOPiK), remains the most significant security blunder. He worked there for nine months, and numerous individuals who shared information with the Black Book of Belarus were subsequently imprisoned due to his actions. People are still being detained in the “Black Book of Belarus case”. The Viasna human rights activists are aware of at least 32 Belarusians who were sentenced due to the disclosure of personal information about security forces in the Black Book of Belarus. They were sentenced to six years in prison on average, and some of them went through beatings and torture.
Even experienced opposition politicians, such as political prisoners in the “seizure of power case”, fall into the tricks of security and intelligence agencies. Yury Ziankovich, the politician, Aliaksandr Fiaduta, the political scientist and literary critic, and Ryhor Kastusiou, the chairman of the Belarusian Popular Front (BPF) party, have also been incarcerated due to the efforts of security and intelligence agencies.