A 28-year-old Russian hockey player has been detained in Poland on suspicion of espionage, Public Prosecutor General of Poland Zbigniew Ziobro said in a tweet. According to the Polish Internal Security Agency, the man was a player of the Polish 1. Liga hockey club.
Media outlet Agentstvo notes that Russian hockey player Maxim Sergeyev fits the description given out by the prosecutor’s office. He plays for KH Zagłębie Sosnowiec, one of the Polska Hokej Liga teams.
One of the Zagłębie Sosnowiec players told Russia’s Match TV that “there’s information that [Maxim] really has been detained”. He noted that he had not seen Sergeyev for several months and that the situation “isn’t quite clear right now”.
However, Sergeyev is 20 years old, while the prosecutor’s office reported to have detained a 28-year-old athlete.
The court arrested him for three months. The Russian man’s full name hasn’t been made public — according to Gazeta Wyborcza, the detainee is Maxim S. No other information has been shared.
The Polish Prosecutor’s Office reports that the Russian national was “carrying out activities involving, among others, identifying critical infrastructure in several voivodeships”.
According to the investigation, the detainee has been in Poland since October 2021. He was charged with participation in an organised criminal group and working for foreign intelligence. He faces up to 10 years behind bars.
Ziobro clarified that the man was the 14th detained member of the Russian spy network.
