Uralkali's security service figures out Belarusian KGB officers

Protection offcers were assigned to protect the Russian company's managers wanted by the Belarusian KGB.

After an incident at Moscow's Leningradski Railway Station, where Belarusian security officers tried to detain on Friday Russian national Dmitry Samoilov, a top manager of the Belarusian Potash Company (BPC), the security service of Uralkali assigned bodyguards to all company employees who have found themselves in the centre of interest of Belarusian security services. Izvestia's sources at the company say the risk of their arrest is estimated as high: according to the company's security service, Belarusian KGB officers set up a kind of 24-hour observation posts and began spying on some Uralkali's managers.

Izvestia's source in Uralkali says BPC managers Konstantin Solodovnikov, Igor Yevstratov and Dmitry Samoilov, all citizens of Russia residing in Moscow, have noticed surveillance over them. Cars with unknown men sitting in them 24 hours a day have recently appeared near their homes. Uralkali's security service found out it was Belarusian security officers.

“These people don't hide. They behave as if they knew they wouldn't be punished. When asked to introduce themselves, they show their KGB ID cards,” the source said to Izvestia. “The security service already knows all of them by sight.”

Uralkali's security service chose not to apply to the Russian securities bodies asking to check if the activity of Belarusian security officers in Russia was legal, according to Izvestia's source. The company's security service began to protect the managers who found themselves in the centre of interests of the Belarusian security bodies.

The source confirms that Belarusian KGB officers tried to detain BPC's top manager Dmitry Samoilov at the Leningradski Railway Station on Friday. Some plainclothes security officers ordered him to get off the train and follow them, but the businessman cried for help and the local police appeared. The KGB officers had to give up after a short explanation at a police department. Official representatives of the Transport Police and Moscow's main police department didn't confirm to Izvestia that the Belarusian security bodies had tried to detain a Russian citizen.