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Spies Testify against Each Other
The closed trail of Russian Army Maj. Sergey Yuren began yesterday in the Moscow District Military Court. Investigators say Yuren and four officers of the Belarusian Army gave Polish intelligence agents information about the facilities of the Russian-Belarusian unified air defense system. The Belarusian officers were sentenced in that country to prison terms of 7-10 years on September 14. Yuren testified against them at their trial and head of the Belarusian KGB Stepan Sukhorenko was dismissed in the resultant scandal.
Yuren is accused of violating article 275 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (“treason in the form of espionage”). The prosecution claims that Yuren, along with Belarusian officers Vladimir Russkin, Viktor Bogdan, Sergey Kornilyuk and Pavel Petkevich, gathered information and various defensive objects located in Belarus, especially S-300 ballistic missile systems.
The activities allegedly began after Russkin was detained on the Polish-Belarusian border several years ago for smuggling ethyl alcohol. He accepted the offer to cooperate with Polish intelligence and began to smuggle copies of secret documents out of the country hidden in a compartment in a fire extinguisher in his car. Poland denies that it has intelligence activities in Belarus.
The group was uncovered in January of this year after Yuren gave himself up to the FSB. Yuren claimed to have worked with the Belarusians in 2005 and 2006, but decided to confess because he was dissatisfied with the compensation he received. Yuren admits his full guilt and expressed regret for his actions. The convicted Belarusian officers will testify in Yuren's trial.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of Sep. 18, 2007
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