Lukashenko's spies in Poland. Former ABW officer: They often get caught because they are amateurs

The Belarusian authorities are massively recruiting agents and sending them to Poland, but this is not a serious threat to our country, said Maj. Dr. Anna Grabowska-Siwiec, a former counterintelligence officer of the Internal Security Agency and a lecturer at the Faculty of International Relations at the University of Białystok, in an interview for Bełsat.

“We know that (Belarusian leader Alaksandr) Lukashenko's services are conducting mass recruitment of agents, hoping that every tenth agent will cooperate,” said Grabowska-Siwiec.

Belarus focuses on quantity, not quality of agents

She noted that mass recruitment serves to intimidate the opposition and show that the regime “has agents everywhere.”

The point is that the agent must be convinced that what he is doing makes sense to him. The Belarusian regime is able to achieve this goal if such an agent leaves a family in the country that becomes a hostage, she said.

“So we should not treat the mass sending of agents to Poland as a gigantic threat. Polish intelligence services – the Internal Security Agency and the Military Counterintelligence Service – have extensive experience in recognizing it,” she said.

She also emphasized that people recruited in this way are not taught intelligence skills, e.g. how to conspire their actions, and therefore they get caught quite often.

Belarus as a tool of Russia

As she noted, the Belarusian services are considered the most active hostile intelligence service in Poland, after Russia. “Every year, three or four Belarusians are detained for working for Belarusian intelligence, and now also for Russian intelligence, which is a greater threat to us,” she said.

In her opinion, the Belarusian authorities are conducting a hybrid war in Poland, which is also manifested by artificial migration pressure on the border created by the Belarusian services and balloon attacks.

“However, this is not only a Polish-Belarusian war, but primarily a Russian-NATO warRussia's war against countries supporting Ukraine, also using cyberattacks and disinformation from its own territory,” she emphasized.

According to her, Belarus is, in a sense, a “proxy state” for Russia, taking actions in its interests and at the same time pursuing its own goals.

According to the expert, a situation in which there are such a large number of foreigners in Poland – Ukrainians, but also Belarusians – “requires a new approach by the Polish state” – paying more attention to the origin of these people, their previous connections with Poland and their motivations to stay on its territory.

Tsikhanouskaya's move as a result of balloons over Vilnius?

Grabowska-Siwiec said that the possible relocation to Poland of the leader of the Belarusian opposition, Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, and her office should not significantly affect the security of Poland and Belarusians in our country, because the Belarusian diaspora is in the center of interest of the Belarusian services anyway.

As she noted, the transfer of Tsikhanouskaya's office to Poland may be related to the fact that Lithuania has a much smaller security potential than Poland and it is a small country subject to much greater pressure from Minsk.

“I would also connect Tsikhanouskaya's current situation with Belarusian balloon attacks on Lithuania, paralyzing the airport in Vilnius. Attacks that Vilnius could not prevent and which disorganized the Lithuanian state, forcing it to introduce a state of emergency. In my opinion, Lithuanians are succumbing to the pressure from Belarus not to support the Belarusian opposition so much,” she said.

Grabowska-Siwiec also expressed the view that the fact that the Polish authorities failed to secure the release of Andrzej Poczobut is a “stain on their honor” and is a reflection of “the worst mutual relations since the establishment of the Third Polish Republic and independent Belarus.” (PAP)

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