Poland has arrested a Russian hockey player suspected of having spied for Moscow while playing for a club in the EU country, the government said on Friday. "The detained man is a professional athlete from a first division hockey club," said a government statement, adding that the Russian national, living in Poland since 2021, was charged with espionage and remanded in custody for three months.
"On the territory of Poland, he carried out tasks for foreign intelligence, including identification of critical infrastructure in several regions," the statement added.
The Russian national was arrested on June 11 in the Silesian region in southern Poland, the government said, without providing details about the hockey team the suspect played on.
According to the national prosecutor's office, the detained man is the 14th person arrested as part of an investigation into a "spy ring collaborating with Russian special services".
"The suspects, identified as foreigners from across the eastern border, carried out intelligence as well as propaganda activities against Poland," the prosecutor's office said in a statement.
Among their activities were "monitoring of railway routes" and spreading "propaganda against NATO, Poland and the Polish government's policy", it said.
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)