A Russian ice hockey player has been arrested in Poland for allegedly spying for Russia. The suspect faces up to ten years in prison if convicted.
The Polish secret service has arrested an ice hockey player who comes from Russia and is said to have spied for his home country. He was part of a network that is said to have primarily spied on the infrastructure in Poland, according to the responsible public prosecutor.
The man was arrested by the secret service on June 11 in Silesia, southern Poland. The public prosecutor’s office did not comment on the identity of the accused. She also gave no information about the ice hockey club for which the man is said to have played. As the dpa news agency reported, the team should play in the first division.
The suspected spy is now being investigated on suspicion of belonging to a criminal organization and acting against Poland’s interests on behalf of a foreign secret service. The suspect faces up to ten years in prison.
Spies are said to have spied on Poland’s railway network
According to the investigators, the athlete has been in Poland since October 2021. He is now the 14th member of a Russian spy ring who has been arrested. Polish Justice Minister Zbigniew Ziobro also confirmed the arrest on Twitter. “The Russian spies are caught one by one,” he wrote.
From the Russian side there was hardly any reaction to the suspicion of espionage. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said only that “no detailed information” on the case would be available.
As reported by the Polish news agency PAP, the spy network to which the suspect is said to have belonged mainly monitored the country’s railway network. Much of the military aid made available by the EU and NATO is transported to Ukraine via Poland.
