State Security Committee (KGB) chairman Ivan Tertel, after reporting to Alyaksandr Lukashenka, said that a foreign intelligence network had been eliminated in Belarus this year. Its members were installing technical intelligence-gathering equipment to intercept pilots’ communications.
According to him, the KGB’s intelligence services assess potential threats to the Belarusian authorities.
“We see how defence budgets are being increased, how the infrastructure of theatres of military operations and potential theatres of military operations is being improved. We also see that there are absolutely no grounds for such measures. And this alarms us. This is an additional task for foreign intelligence: to uncover real plans regarding our country and what may affect our country. Of course, foreign intelligence also reports other issues to the head of state, in particular aspirations towards the Republic of Belarus. I would like to state, on the basis of documentary materials that are reported to the head of state and on the basis of which decisions are taken, that the long-term plans of our opponents have not changed. The main thing is, of course, a geopolitical redivision in the region and the accompanying goals — a change of the constitutional system in the Republic of Belarus, attempt number two,” he said.
According to him, foreign intelligence services are also active. Tertel said that satellites photograph Belarusian territory on a daily basis.
“By the way, this year Belarusian counterintelligence identified and eliminated an extensive network of foreign special services which, with the assistance of certain individuals on our territory, were engaged in installing technical means that made it possible to intercept the communications of our pilots, both civilian and military, as they carried out their tasks, and to monitor the situation around restricted facilities. This was a large-scale counterintelligence effort that made it possible to eliminate this threat,” he added.
Tertel also noted that foreign intelligence services are monitoring Belarus in connection with the deployment of Russian nuclear weapons and the Oreshnik system.