National security: top priorities

The President of Belarus held a meeting with the leadership and operational staff of the state security bodies. The main topics are prevented terrorist attacks in our country, the clandestine Abwehr schools of Western intelligence agencies, important agreements with Russia, the prospects for the dollar and the averted missile attack on Belarus.

Aleksandr Lukashenko emphasised at the meeting, “Thanks to the well-coordinated work of the national security, defence and law enforcement bodies in identifying and localising threats at an early stage, tasks in the areas of intelligence, counterintelligence, protection of the constitutional order and countering terrorism are successfully solved... 
The situation around and inside Belarus is just the tip of the iceberg. You know the depth and the underside of all means and methods of pressure on us. These include coup d’état attempts, organisation of terrorist acts, actions to intimidate the population, aggressive information warfare, and also attempts to destroy the economy. In short, it is a hybrid war. It is precisely such wars that will wage in all parts of our planet, if they decide to do so. The end point of such a hybrid war is military aggression. Fortunately, we have not come to that yet.”

‘Man-to-man talk’

Serious man-to-man talk — this is how the President called the meeting. The plans to commit violent extremist acts against representatives of the state media, judges, MPs, law enforcement officers and members of their families uncovered by the KGB also speak eloquently about it. More serious acts of intimidation were also planned. Aleksandr Lukashenko named specific facts,

“In 2021 Belarus’ state security bodies in co-operation with other state agencies prevented 11 attempts to commit terrorist acts organised and financed from the territory of Poland, Lithuania, Ukraine, the United States and Germany. Thanks to the efforts of special services, including those officers in attendance here today, the activities of the network of so-called sleeper cells of the Rabochy Rukh project, supervised by the US and Lithuanian special services, have been documented and suppressed. 

This extremist unit planned sabotage preparations with the death of people at the facilities of the Orsha and Minsk railway junctions, at Grodno Azot, Gomselmash, Naftan, and BMZ. To adjust the Western sanctions policy, they collected closed data on mechanisms to counter economic restrictions through a network of informants.”


The President drew attention to the need to create a reliable system of counterintelligence protection of enterprises and institutions and recalled that specific decisions were already made on this issue, orders were given to the Government and the KGB.
Aleksandr Lukashenko cited the recent plebiscite in Belarus as an example, 

“We held the referendum without incidents. Our self-exiled opposition had great ‘hopes’ on this event. The so-called ‘Peramoga’ plan developed by an extremist organisation provided for the organisation of a series of terrorist attacks in the country, which would serve as a pretext for social upheaval. Some people abroad did not hide the fact that it could have been a provocation with the death of people (which would have been a gift for them), clergymen or other ‘sacred sacrifice’. They are not abandoning these ideas today. Fortunately, we keep the situation under control.”

According to the Belarusian leader, all the mechanisms used to disrupt the constitutional campaign did not yield the desired result either: information aggression, cyber-attacks on vital infrastructure, rail transport, industrial and energy facilities, and law enforcement agencies.
“I’d like to draw attention to attempts to stage cyberattacks against us that have been made. Those are akin to biological weapons and are even more powerful. They don’t need tanks, machine guns, or high-precision missiles. Organising massive cyberattacks against economic objects, subjects of any country will suffice for turning the country upside down. It is time for the executors of the plans I have named to admit that they lost their last chance to rehabilitate themselves before their sponsors on the day of the referendum. The voting day was their last chance to bring people to the streets and turn the country upside down. If it doesn’t work — they will not get money. Now they are kept on a shoestring budget and are scouring the planet, from the U.S. to Japan, in search of money. They failed. Now they have launched different campaigns. You know, ‘no war’ is their new motto, and they are campaigning against the war in Ukraine but at the same time putting together battalions of misled Belarusian citizens… Even if the diaspora or somebody else abroad donate this money, it is clear that 99 percent of that will end up in their pockets, as it has happened before. Fortunately, the West has begun to understand this and does not throw the money around,” noted the Head of State.

Who is preparing the ‘new elite’ for Belarus?

The President told who and where is now preparing the fifth column for Belarus, “The fifth column, which is controlled from Vilnius, Warsaw, Kiev, but in reality from Washington is, I repeat, different people now (they are doing the right thing: well-thumbed faces need to be replaced). They are being trained under the aegis of security agencies of the USA and Western Europe countries in conditions of increased conspiracy. They are being trained in the territory of individual neighbouring countries similarly to Abwehr schools of the Great Patriotic War period. The experience came in handy for them.”
According to the Head of State, plans have been made to insert the so-called new elite that has been trained there into various spheres of the Belarusian society: primarily into the state administration system, into defence, security, and law enforcement agencies, into public organisations and mass media.

“Creeping transformation of the Belarusian state for the benefit of the West, sale of the most precious economic assets, and change of the country’s political course are their goals. A change in the political course is an attempt to redistribute spheres of influence in the region. Obviously, the ultimate goal is Russia, China and their elimination as competitors on the geopolitical map of the world. The events that are taking place around Ukraine are direct proof of this,” said the Belarusian leader.

Aleksandr Lukashenko stressed that our economy, as before, will be tested by sanctions. However, Belarus can overcome them. The President is confident that soon the currencies of such countries as Russia or China will be more in demand, to the markets of which Belarus supplies a significant part of its products. And therefore, there is no need for citizens to ‘run around the back streets’ in order to exchange rubles for dollars,

“Today the U.S. dollar has already started weakening against other currencies. Nobody needs it any longer, especially given the current sanctions… Very soon we will be hunting for the Russian ruble or the Chinese yuan, because these are the countries we will be mainly trading with.”

Aleksandr Lukashenko also noted that they are going to push us into this war in Ukraine, “The yet another launch of a Tochka-U missile to deliver a strike in Belarus’ territory virtually two days ago at night is a testimony to that. We and Russians successfully intercepted and destroyed it over the Pripyat River. The remains lie somewhere by the river. If someone is interested and nearby, feel free to go there and take a look… What is that? Do they really want to bomb Belarus with one missile? It won’t work. This missile will simply not reach us. Why is it being done? In order to stir us up. In order to make us respond. But we are no simpletons. If we respond, we will respond properly. Everyone will feel it then. We hold out for now.”
The Head of State warned that in the future, there will be attempts to intimidate people, induce them to betray, in order to disorganise the work of the largest industrial enterprises, transport, energy, and communications facilities,

“Information aggression will be increasing. Huge resources are spent to discredit the state in the eyes of the population. Discipline should be the toughest. As soon as we, especially the security bodies, let our guard down we will repeat the events of 2020, but this time we will not be able to keep the country intact. Things will sort out and stabilise if we keep cool and know what we want.”

Based on materials of sb.by and belta.by
Photos by BELTA