Military attaché booted out of Belarus for spying on Europe's last Stalinist state

Although the diplomat was arrested on Tuesday, and given 24 hours to leave the country, the news only broke officially on Thursday. "Colonel Witaszczyk was arrested in a very unpleasant fashion, while he was having a meal with a Belarussian journalist in a restaurant next to the embassy," said Tadeusz Pawlak, the Polish ambassador, who has registered an official protest with the Belarussian authorities over the matter. The expulsion has been interpreted as an act of political provocation. (Rzeczpospolita, p. A7) D.W.