Washington Shrugs Off Accusations of Organizing Spy Ring in Belarus

Washington views allegations that it attempted to organize a spy ring in Belarus as “ridiculous,” Tom Casey, deputy spokesman for the US Department of State, told reporters on Monday.

Belarus’ First National Channel aired another report accusing the United States of having recruited Belarusians to spy on their country on May 4. In fact, the report contained few new details of an espionage story broken by the channel this past March.

The initial report said that the ring had been organized by the US diplomatic mission in Minsk and involved around 10 Belarusian citizens who passed to the United States information "for the use to the detriment of Belarus."

“I think the Belarusian Government is scared of its own people. I think they are afraid of us or anyone else that’s willing to stand up and support democracy and democracy advocates there,” Mr. Casey said at a press briefing on May 5.

“And I think they've proven, time and again, through their actions, whether that's reduction of our staff or whether that's ridiculous accusations of this nature, that they'll come up with any excuse to try and deflect from what the real issue is,” he said.

The spokesman described the espionage allegations as “simply untrue” and “unfounded” and said that they “make a very poor excuse for reducing our Embassy staff.”

Mr. Casey said that the Belarusian and US governments had no communication on the matter.

The May 4 report included an interview with Valery Nadtachayew, spokesman for the Committee for State Security (KGB), who said that the KGB had prevented the group organized by the US embassy from turning into a spy ring. “This group did not become a spy ring only because of the prompt intervention by Belarus’ law enforcement agencies. They managed to prevent attempts at drawing Belarusian citizens into criminal activities involving high treason in the form of espionage at an early stage,” he was quoted as saying.

The KGB spokesman named Curt Finley, who he said was an FBI officer, as the organizer of the spy ring, saying that the American had already left the country.

Mr. Nadtachayew confirmed that none of the Belarusians allegedly recruited by the US embassy had been arrested.
In an interview with BelaPAN this past March, US Charge d’Affaires Jonathan Moore denied the accusations. “We have no spies operating in Belarus,” he said.

The US diplomat said that Mr. Finley and Bernard Nixon, another embassy officer mentioned in the report, were part of the embassy’s security service and were not FBI officers.

The espionage allegations came amid an escalating diplomatic row between the two countries. Only four US diplomats stay in Belarus at present.