Events

Belarus’ security service reveals details of Lithuanian agent’s arrest

MINSK, 12 May (BelTA) - Details of the arrest of a Lithuanian agent by Belarusian State Security Committee (KGB) were revealed in a news story aired by the ONT TV channel, BelTA has learned.

The name of the detained Lithuanian agent is Miroslavas Trockis. He was once called Miroslav Trotsky but he changed his name to sound Lithuanian due to nationalist views. As a child, Miroslavas Trockis came to Belarus every summer to visit his grandparents in the village of Pusyavary in Voronovo District. This fact from his biography would later become the basis for his cover story.Miroslavas Trockis stopped coming to Belarus after his grandparents passed away. In Lithuania, he first served as a border guard and later worked in the traffic police. He also tried to run a business, but without success. The man met a Belarusian woman, started a family. Some time later he was detained for keeping a firearm that he had accidentally found on one of his boats.

“I had a small caliber gun in my apartment. I was stopped by officers from certain agencies (I did not know exactly which ones) and they told me they were going to do a home search. I admitted that I had a small caliber gun,” Miroslavas Trockis said.

Later, an investigator offered Miroslavas to get him out of pre trial detention. He also suggested making some easy money and said he would share Miroslavas’s number with an acquaintance of his. Later it would turn out that Mr Trockis was in the sight of intelligence services for a long time as a potential candidate for recruitment.“I was contacted by phone by a man who arranged a meeting. When I arrived at the spot, I was approached by a man I recognized immediately,” he said.

It was another old acquaintance of Mr Trockis who had long been observing Miroslavas. That man was Lithuanian intelligence.

“The man introduced himself as Andrius. He said he was interested in any information about Belarus. He was interested in military units, training grounds... He asked me if I was ready to work for the state, and I agreed,” Miroslavas Trockis shared.

The main task of the agent, who took the alias Ringo, was to deliver money and information to the Lithuanian intelligence agents working in Belarus. Renovating a house in a village near the Belarusian-Lithuanian border was his cover story for frequent visits. The cover story about the family home was not only intended for the Belarusian side but also for his wife and daughter.He received his first assignment in 2024. The agent traveled to Belarus under the pretext of the land title registration. Ringo crossed into Belarus without raising any suspicion from border guards or customs. He always carried an amount of money that would allow him to pass through the border smoothly. Unremarkable digital storage devices containing information for Lithuanian intelligence were hidden in his car.

To avoid suspicion, he visited his relatives whenever possible. But Miroslavas had no idea that the KGB was monitoring him from the moment he crossed the border.

“Operative work established and documented the illegal activities by Lithuanian citizen Miroslavas Trockis, born in 1990,” said Aleksandr Tarasevich, Deputy Head of the Investigative Directorate of the Belarusian State Security Committee. “He collected various types of information about law enforcement, military, social and political affairs, and also took part in covert cache operations to maintain communication between the foreign intelligence and their agents.”According to him, the intelligence communicated assignments to its agents, supped them with espionage equipment, and paid them financial compensation.

“The last mission was to transport two memory cards. He [the handler from the Lithuanian intelligence] said they contained some encrypted information. An ordinary person would not be able to open it,” Miroslavas Trockis said.

On his final mission, the agent suspected he was being followed. When his nerves finally gave out, he went to the hospital complaining of ulcer pain. In this way, he tried to buy time and contact his handlers, using his own family without their knowledge. Miroslavas’s mother in law visited him in the hospital, brought him two books to read, one of which was about Felix Dzerzhinsky, the founder of the KGB. At that point, Ringo decided to confess to his wife, leaving a message in this book.

The foreigner waited in panic to be evacuated from Belarus, but the KGB already had a plan in motion. A KGB officer visited Miroslavas in the hospital pretending to be Lithuanian intelligence readying an evacuation plan.

The Belarusian counterintelligence officer played his role brilliantly and got Miroslavas to give incriminating testimony against himself. After about an hour of ‘heart-to-heart, KGB officers detained Ringo right on the highway.

“I am sorry for the harm I have caused to the Belarusian people. If I had known it involved terrorist acts where people would get hurt, I would not have done that. I just wanted easy money to pay my debts,” he said.

After he was exposed, a wave of resignations hit Lithuanian intelligence.Among those who resigned early was the Director of the Defense Intelligence and Security, Elegijus Paulavičius. As for the members of the Lithuanian intelligence network for whom Miroslavas hid money in caches and supplied with espionage equipment, they have been detained by Belarusian counterintelligence.

The State Security Committee informs that cooperation with foreign intelligence or committing any actions in its interests damage the national interests and the national security of the Republic of Belarus. The KGB urges anyone involved to stop cooperation with foreign intelligence and to come forward about their activities as this will help them to avoid criminal prosecution.