Belarus and Poland exchanged detainees, including Butyagin

On the state border of Belarus and Poland has undergone a five-for-five operation to exchange detainees. This was reported in the KGB of Belarus .

"On April 28, at the Pererov—Belovezha checkpoint on the Belarusian-Polish border, the State Security Committee of Belarus and the Polish Foreign Intelligence Agency exchanged five persons convicted of espionage in the Republic of Belarus and the Russian Federation for five citizens detained in various countries The EU and other states. Among those returned to their homeland are citizens of Belarus, Russia and other CIS countries. All of them were provided with the necessary primary medical and household care," the report says.

It is noted that the State Security Committee prepared the exchange operation on behalf of the President of Belarus for about a year, and special services and representatives of seven countries were involved in its elaboration, which required lengthy and difficult negotiations.

"The State Security Committee of Belarus expresses its gratitude and notes the special contribution of the FSB of Russia to the implementation of the measures, the high level of interaction with the leadership and personnel of the Russian special service in solving the most difficult issues that arose during the preparation of the operation, thanks to which it was possible to achieve a positive result," the department noted.

It also became known that among those released are citizens of Belarus who performed particularly important tasks in the interests of ensuring national security and defense capability of our country. The fate of these people at all stages of their activities is under special control of Alexander Lukashenko.

"Taking into account the personal request to the President of Belarus of the mother of Andrei Poczobut, who is serving a sentence for committing a number of particularly serious crimes, and Angelika Boris, the head of state instructed the KGB to include the convict in this exchange process," the Belarusian media reported.

In addition, as it became known, the Russian archaeologist Alexander Butyagin was handed over to the Belarusian side. He was exchanged for two officers of the special services of Moldova.

Recall, Butyagin was detained by Poland in December for excavations in Crimea, when he was heading from the Netherlands to the Balkans. Later, the Polish court approved the extradition of the archaeologist to Ukraine.