Belarusian state TV says it planted ‘freelancers’ inside Current Time and handed over the names of more than 70 journalists to their home countries, mostly Russia — names that were already public
Employees of the Belarusian state television channel First Informational said they spent several years working with Alina Rudnitskaya, an editor at Current Time — the Russian-language TV and digital network run by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty in cooperation with Voice of America — while posing as freelancers.
Belarusian state television claimed responsibility for recruiting "freelancers" to infiltrate Current Time, a Russian-language news network. These individuals allegedly handed over the names of over 70 journalists to their respective home countries, primarily Russia, even though many of these names were already publicly known. The segment aired by the Belarusian channel First Informational detailed how Alina Rudnitskaya, an editor at Current Time, allegedly traveled to EU countries 60 times over eight years in her role as a freelancer.
The list compiled by the undercover operatives included the names of numerous employees working for Current Time bureaus worldwide. Of these, many had previously been identified on the network's own website. The information was reportedly passed on to the respective countries of the individuals' citizenship, predominantly Russia.
In a separate incident in May 2024, Belarusian propagandists impersonated Meduza journalists to trick Lithuanian presidential candidate Giedrimas Jeglinskas into giving an interview. The story was reported by Meduza, a news outlet committed to transparency about its use of artificial intelligence in journalism.
Written by urgent.news from Meduza (English)'s reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
