Czech, Romanian, and Hungarian special services smash Belarusian espionage network, Moldova’s former counterintelligence chief arrested

The Czech Security and Information Service (BIS) reports that the country’s intelligence agencies, together with their counterparts in Romania and Hungary, have uncovered and dismantled a Belarusian espionage network operating in Europe.

“We have dismantled a Belarusian espionage network in Europe! The Security Information Service (BIS), together with the intelligence services of Romania and Hungary, successfully intervened and dismantled a Belarusian intelligence network operating in Europe. Following this international operation, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Czechia decided to expel a Belarusian intelligence officer who had been operating in the country under diplomatic cover,” BIS wrote in its statement on X.

Czech Foreign Minister Jan Lipavský also issued a statement: “I would like to thank the BIS and Czech diplomacy for uncovering and punishing the espionage activities of Belarusian agents. We will not allow agents to operate in our country. We will defend Czechia.”

The name of the diplomat who is required to leave the Czech Republic within 72 hours has not been disclosed. However, the Belarusian embassy section of the Czech MFA website lists only one staff member: diplomat Stefaniya Zmitrakovich.

According to the Hungarian outlet Telex, the case also involves a Belarusian opposition activist:

“As part of the international counterintelligence operation, another Belarusian living in Poland also came under the scrutiny of the intelligence services. He resides in the Polish-Belarusian border area, works as a taxi driver, and is a member of the Belarusian opposition.”

According to the Czech intelligence service, a former deputy director of Moldova's Security and Intelligence Service (SIS) was among those exposed as having collaborated with the Belarusian KGB. The official in question was arrested in Romania on Sept. 8, with the Romanian outlet G4media identifying him as Alexandru Bălan. The Insider has obtained a photograph of his arrest:

As The Insider found, Bălan facilitated cooperation between the intelligence services of Ukraine and Moldova as a liaison officer at the Ukrainian General Staff, but he was recalled for unsatisfactory performance. However, he refused to return to Moldova. In 2024, he criticized Maia Sandu over reforms to the country’s intelligence service. Bălan met with Belarusian KGB officers in Budapest twice: in 2024 and 2025.

According to an investigation by Moldovan outlet Cutia Neagră, Bălan was involved in the detention and extradition to Turkey of seven teachers from a network of private high schools in the Republic of Moldova. The teachers were regarded as enemies by the Erdogan regime in Ankara.

In 2023, TV8 reported that SIS deputy head Bălan was stopped in a parking lot behind the wheel of his car after having collided with two other vehicles. He turned out to be drunk. The incident occurred on the anniversary of Moldova’s Security and Intelligence Service, when its staff were celebrating the agency’s 32nd year of existence. A source close to the intelligence services does not rule out that this incident may have been the starting point for his recruitment by Belarusian KGB officers: “Such people may harbor resentment and be vulnerable to recruitment at that moment.”

A year ago, Bălan said that the Russian Embassy in Moldova posed a threat to the country: “Even though, as you saw last year, we expelled 45 Russian diplomats, they still have a large presence. Almost the entire residency of the Russian intelligence services operates from the territory of the Russian Embassy, which at the same time provides an opportunity to carry out various operations already from the standpoint of our SIS.”

At the same time, he admitted that the Chișinău-based Topaz plant was selling military-grade radio components to Russia, and that the deal for its sale from one Russian oligarch to another had gone through right under the noses of the Moldovan authorities.

After an investigation by The Insider and Jurnal TV into spies at the Russian Embassy in Chișinău, the Moldovan authorities expelled 36 diplomats from the country. In total, 68 people left, along with their pets. However, as The Insider noted, several officers of the GRU, SVR, and FSB who had been spying under the embassy’s cover, as well as embassy secretaries working in direct contact with the leadership of the FSB’s Fifth Service, remained in Chișinău.