KGB Reveals Foreign Spy — Mechanic, Activist of Dubious Union of Young Intellectuals

Belarus’ KGB announced Tuesday that Andrej Hajdukou, a recently arrested young opposition activist, had spied for a foreign intelligence agency.

KGB spokesman Aliaksandr Antanovich said in a statement that Hajdukou had “gathered and passed political and economic information on the instructions of a foreign intelligence agency,” and that he had been caught in the act of making a dead drop, BelaPAN says.

The KGB charges Aliaksandr Antanovich of high treason under the article 356 part 1 of the Criminal Code what may presuppose the punishment of up to 15 years in prison.

The 22-year-old Hajdukou, deputy Chairperson of youth NGO called the Union of Young Intellectuals, resident of Navapolack, is a resident of Viciebsk region, and an employee of the Naftan oil refinery.

Some media report he is also a member of an unregistered opposition party called Belarusian Christian Democracy (BCD). However, this information is mistaken as Tacciana Sieviarynec, BCD activist and Viciebsk region BCD coordinator told Nasha Niva that Hajdukou never enrolled the party.

“I spoke to him on the phone several times, but he did not joined our oganising committee [the Organising Committee of Belarusian Christian Democracy —NN],” she said.

Illia Bahdanau, a Polack resident, member of the Union of Young Intellectuals and also a BCD member, was detained by the KGB together with Andrej Hajdukou.

The KGB seized his CDs, USB flash drives, some printed material. It is reported there were some agitation materials calling to come to protest rally on December 19, 2010.

However, Bahdanau was released at night, soon after he had been questioned. He managed to make his was to Polack hitchhiking.

“The next day the KGB officers came to my workplace, told me that Hajdukou gave me away. It might have been a psychological technique, but I recalled the last talk with Hajdukou, when he said, ‘If something happens, you’re going down together with me.’”

There is almost no information on the activity of the Union of Young Intellectuals though. Chairperson of the organisation Jauhien Kanstancinau told Nasha Niva the NGO was established three years ago.

“We are social and cultural organisation. Our primary task is to be a platform for creation of a party of intellectuals,” he said.

Jauhien Kanstancinau also says Hajdukou cannot be a spy: “He is neither a scientist nor a serviceman nor a spy. He can’t even speak English — he studied German in school.”

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