«The girl had diplomatic immunity — from the Russian embassy». How agents tried to get into conferences with Belarusians participating

Maria recalls how in early 2019, a major conference took place in Prague involving media professionals from around the world. Sadouskaya-Kamlach was then one of the co-organizers. The main part was held in one of Prague's hotels, and the premises where everything took place could only be accessed by participant lists.

«Lunch was scheduled in the hotel restaurant. When we returned from it to the premises, we noticed: our colleague, who had broken her leg, was talking to a girl pushing her wheelchair. At the same time, we didn't remember the name of this participant.

They had almost entered the hall when we stopped them and asked the participant to say where she was from. She introduced herself as a translator. When we asked from which language to which, it turned out to be from English to Russian. In the entire conference, only I, my colleague, and one or two other people with very good English spoke Russian».

The girl still insisted that she was a translator hired for the conference, and that the organizers were preventing her from working. They appealed to the hotel for help, and the staff called the police. While they were waiting for her, people called the hotel, introducing themselves as the employers of the so-called translator, and threatened the organizers for allegedly not letting her work.

The result was unexpected:

«When the police arrived and asked for documents, the girl said that she had diplomatic immunity from the Russian embassy, and that she would be released anyway. At that moment, the Russian embassy in Prague had over 100 accredited diplomats; it was the main center for monitoring events in Central and Eastern Europe. Therefore, the fact that someone could be seconded for such a role was not surprising».

Maria was also a witness to other events, information from which reached undesirable individuals. She recalls how after a conference in the Netherlands, propaganda articles about destructive informational activities appeared on a Russian-language website.

And even a closed event format doesn't always help. Around 2016-2017, a conference was held in Riga, where Maria noticed a strange man: 

«He watched those entering and leaving the hall, in the bar near it, sipping the same beer for several hours. Finally, this man couldn't resist and approached me and another girl by the door — we had participant badges. And asked if the employees of a certain media outlet had already left the hall.

I almost automatically answered the truth, but then realized the possible reason for the question and asked in return: «Who are they?» 

As a result, the man had to tell Maria the story of that media outlet himself. However, she says, he did not introduce himself. And no one from that media outlet had planned to meet with him, and their participation in the program had not been announced at all.

Maria says that it can never be ruled out that among the event participants there will be someone who, consciously or unconsciously, will transmit information to third parties or organizations.

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