Russia's FSB Confirms CIA Role In Kiev's 2020 Operation To Detain 33 Russians In Belarus

Faizan Hashmi Published September 08, 2021 | 03:30 PM

The Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) confirms CNN information about the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)'s involvement in the 2020 operation of Ukrainian intelligence to detain 33 Russians in the Belarusian capital of Minsk, a FSB spokesman said on Wednesday

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 08th September, 2021) The Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) confirms CNN information about the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)'s involvement in the 2020 operation of Ukrainian intelligence to detain 33 Russians in the Belarusian capital of Minsk, a FSB spokesman said on Wednesday.

"We fully confirm the information released by the CNN broadcaster, it is absolutely reliable, they objectively showed the CIA role ... They showed that it was an operation conducted jointly with the Ukrainian Defense Ministry's GUR [Chief Directorate of Intelligence]and the SBU [Ukrainian security service], so we consider this information reliable," the spokesman told reporters.

"We all remember very well how it happened, our citizens were actually lured into Belarus by GUR and SBU under CIA guidance ... There was a hoax claiming that these people arrived to participate in riots on the side of the opposition, this is why our Belarusian partners reacted that way.

But all fell into line eventually despite attempts by the Ukrainian side," the spokesman continued.

The FSB spokesman described the "planned kidnapping" as an "act of state terrorism" committed by Ukrainian special services and emphasized that Ukraine was used as a tool.

"These facts that were discussed a year ago and that the CNN confirmed additionally indicate that Ukraine is in fact carrying out acts of state terrorism through its special services. This is an accusation at the level of an international criminal court," the spokesman went on to say.

"The goal of the Americans was well known. They acted exclusively in a bid to fulfill their geopolitical task to sever the Russian-Belarusian relations. The whole operation was planned solely for this ... Ukrainians are a tool. Financially and technically, the Americans did it all," the spokesman specified.