Mahiliou: military enlistment office suggested independent journalist to agree to surveillance over himself

At the local military enlistment office Yauhen Hlushkou was proposed to sign the statement according to which intelligence services could carry out verification activities against him at any time.

The verification activities include the restriction of the right to privacy, wiretapping and surveillance.

"In the recruiting office I was told that during hostilities I am likely to be granted access to the secrets, but in order to get such access I needed to sign the statement. Previously, I served in the frontier troops, and the service was associated with a certain secrets," said Mr. Hlushkou.

The journalist said that he refused to sing the paper.

"In another questionnaire I was required to answer whether I had friends or relatives abroad and how often I traveled abroad and whether I had a permission to it. I provocatively asked whether one could assume that Russia is not a foreign answer and received a shocking answer that Russia was not a foreign country. I had to convince the military that we live in an independent country and not in the USSR," says Yauhen Hlushkou.