Pokémon is a Western intelligence tool, Belarus claims

A Belarus Defense Ministry official has accused the once wildly popular mobile game Pokémon Go of being an instrument of Western intelligence.

Alexander Ivanov, the ministry’s department head of ideological work, said the game was used to collect information about Belarusian aviation near Minsk, at its height of popularity nearly a decade ago.

“Where do you think there were the most Pokémon at that time?” Ivanov asked on the Belarusian talk show Essentially earlier this week. “On the territory of the 50th air base, where the runway is, where there is a lot of military aviation equipment. That’s where there were the most Pokémon. Is this not intelligence information?”

Ivanov brought up Pokémon Go during a discussion about objects most likely to be targeted by spies.

Pokémon Go is an augmented reality game, released in 2016, allowing its millions of players to use their smartphones to capture digital Pokémon (think: make-believe animals with superpowers) in the physical world.

It promised new users that “Pokémon can be found in every corner of the earth.” Pokémon is a Japanese media franchise including video games, playing cards and a TV show which launched back in 1996.

Russia, Belarus’ close ally, warned at the time that the game could be a security risk, while Russian media claimed it was a CIA plot. Niantic, the American developer of the application, denied that Pokémon Go was an espionage tool.