Counterintelligence — 2026-07-06

Poland Arrests Two Suspected of Spying on Belarusian Exiles for Minsk Intelligence Services

BLUFSeven arrests across two rounds mark Belarusian intelligence's diaspora surveillance as a sustained operational priority, one Minsk is running despite escalating NATO counterintelligence exposure.

Poland's Internal Security Agency detained a 19-year-old Belarusian citizen and a 44-year-old Polish citizen on Thursday for allegedly spying on Belarusian exiles for Minsk's intelligence services 12. ABW spokesman Jacek Dobrzyński said the pair, paid by Belarusian intelligence, attended Warsaw events organized by the Belarusian minority, photographed and recorded participants, and passed the material across the border for use by Lukashenko's services and regime propaganda 12. A court ordered the Belarusian held in pre-trial detention for three months; the Pole had his passport confiscated and was barred from leaving Poland under police supervision 12. The detentions extend a case that saw three Belarusians and two Ukrainians arrested on the same charges last November, with Rzeszów ABW and Lublin prosecutors running the investigation 2.

Analysis
The arrests bring the known Belarusian surveillance network targeting exiles on NATO soil to seven suspects across two rounds since November, pointing to a sustained, state-directed collection effort rather than freelance activity, with the Belarusian-Polish pairing mirroring the recruitment model seen in Latvia's Baltic Antifascists case of local nationals tasked as foreign-service collectors. ABW's public disclosure through its spokesman signals deterrence intent toward both Minsk's services and the exile community, a reading corroborated by the agency's own statement on charges and detention terms alongside Reuters' wire account. The suspects' tradecraft, photographing attendees at public community events, suggests the operation's value to Minsk may lie less in strategic collection than in identifying and intimidating individual dissidents.

4 sources

Poland detains two men suspected of spying for Belarus - Reuters
Poland arrests two suspected of working for Belarusian intelligence - Euroradio
Poland Arrests Two Suspected of Spying on Belarusian Exiles - EU Today
Zatrzymanie obywatela Białorusi - Internal Security Agency (ABW), Poland — statement via spokesman Jacek Dobrzyński