"The State Security Committee of Belarus (KGB) continues to perpetrate aggressive intelligence activities against Lithuanian citizens in the territory of Belarus," the latest report from Lithuania's State Security Department and military intelligence, says.
According to the document, in Lithuania, KGB officers are deprived of permissive conditions to work under diplomatic cover, thus KGB operatives are most active when targeting and harassing Lithuanian citizens on the Belarusian soil.
Officers from the Lithuanian police, the Dignitary Protection Service, the State Border Guard Service, judges, politicians, state and municipal officials, and employees of state-owned enterprises as well as journalists who regularly travel to Belarus are of interest to the KGB, the report states.
"Information collection on these targets is initiated as soon as they submit their visa requests," the threat assessment report says.
Lithuania's intelligence warns that in order to recruit Lithuanian citizens, the KGB engages in blackmail, exploits personal vulnerabilities, staged or genuine incidents, administrative violations or attempts to lure into "honey trap", i.e. it introduces its target to an individual cooperating with the KGB so that to lure the target into a compromising relationship and then use it for blackmail.
The report provides a specific example when Belarusian intelligence attempted to recruit a 34-year-old Lithuanian database administrator at a Lithuanian state institution. According to the document,
Tomas travelled to Belarus with his friends to celebrate a friend’s birthday and „at a bar in Grodno he met a lovely Belarusian girl Yelena, who treated him with exceptional attention all the evening". "Under the influence of alcohol, Tomas accepted her proposal to go to her place. The morning after a Belarusian police officer stopped Tomas on his way back to hotel and demanded to provide his ID and mentioned that he was investigating a theft case," the document reads.
According to Lithuanian intelligence, several men in a car nearby told the Lithuanian man that he was suspected of having robbed the Belarusian citizen, showed him compromising photos taken the night before at Yelena’s apartment and threatened to pass them to the Lithuanian man's wife.
To avoid problems, the Lithuanian man was asked "to tell about his work, to characterize his colleagues and pass a copy of the database of Lithuanian residents".
"Back in Lithuania, Tomas contacted Lithuanian intelligence, reported about the incident in Belarus and received necessary assistance," the reports states.