KGB agent Inna Kardash, arrested by Ukrainian security services, was in a relationship for several years with Belarusian volunteer fighter who fought on Ukraine’s side and former political prisoner Alyaksandr Malchanau. Malchanau himself wrote about this on Facebook, publishing joint photographs as confirmation.
Reform.news contacted Malchanau to learn more details.
He said he was in a relationship with Inna Kardash for about four years, from 2017 to 2021. During that time, the woman lived in Belarus and traveled to meet him when he was on leave. Malchanau believes that he was of no real interest to Belarusian security services and that the KGB irrationally wasted resources by paying him so much attention.
“The KGB officers are just so stupid that they waste resources for nothing,” Alyaksandr Malchanau said.
According to him, the woman did not try to recruit or “re-educate” him, did not ask questions on sensitive topics, and generally did not raise suspicions, although she occasionally expressed pro-Russian views.
“She could say something like ‘there are no Russians in Donbas,’ but I put it down to stupidity,” Malchanau said.
According to Malchanau , the relationship ended in 2021 because, as he put it, work was “too important” for Kardash.
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Malchanau was an activist of the youth movement Zubr from Barysau and took part in protests against the results of the 2010 elections. He was arrested, and on March 2, 2011, a court found him guilty of mass disorder and insulting state symbols, sentencing him to three years in a high-security penal colony. He was released in September 2011 under a presidential pardon decree signed by Lukashenka.
Since 2014, Malchanau has fought on Ukraine’s side in the Anti-Terrorist Operation as part of the Right Sector Volunteer Ukrainian Corps, and since 2015 — as part of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. He has received Ukrainian state awards. In Belarus, a criminal case was opened against him on charges of mercenarism. In 2018, he was wounded, with a bullet lodging in the ethmoid bone of his skull. He lost sight in one eye.
