Здание КГБ Беларуси в Минске
A report appeared on a fake Telegram channel purporting to belong to the Belarusian KGB (@kgb_kanal), claiming that a group preparing an act of sabotage at one of Russia’s strategic facilities had been stopped. Leading Russian media outlets fell for the fake report, after which the “news” was republished by almost all major Russian online media.
“According to available information, the operation was coordinated from Ukrainian territory, while Belarus was intended to be used as a transit route for delivering equipment, unmanned aerial vehicles and communications equipment to members of the group,” the anonymous authors of the fake Telegram channel vaguely described the alleged operation.
Vedomosti, RT, Vesti, Lenta.ru, Life.ru, Interfax and dozens of other Russian media outlets fell for the fake report. Belarusian media then picked it up as well.
The fact is that Belarus’ State Security Committee essentially has no official online channels. In April 2024, the Cyber Partisans said they had hacked the KGB website, and it has been offline ever since. On Telegram, the Belarusian security service attempted to establish an official channel at @KGB_BY_channel, but it is updated irregularly and is used only to publish updates to the List of Organizations and Individuals Involved in Terrorist Activities.