Security chief: West portrays Belarus as threat to secure more EU, NATO funding

November 9, Pozirk. Western countries portray Belarus as a source of hybrid attacks to secure more funding, Alaksandar Valfovič, state secretary of the Belarusian Security Council, told the 14th meeting of security council chiefs of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) in Moscow.

The official claimed that Belarus was being unfairly blamed for facilitating irregular migration, drone and balloon incursions, cyberattacks and damage to critical infrastructure, while even Belarusian food, fuel and visa-free travel were being portrayed as threats. Valfovič said the allegations were intended to justify pressure on Minsk, sanctions and border closures, enabling Western countries to secure more funding from NATO and the European Union.

“This is clearly an attempt to secure additional foreign funding for military purposes,” state-run media quoted him as saying. “Moreover, it provides an excellent opportunity to divert attention from domestic problems, particularly during election campaigns, when this becomes especially evident and predictable.”

The West is using speculation about an imaginary military threat from the East to justify militaristic policies, the official added.

Minsk has been proposing security dialogue with its western neighbors on drone and balloon incursions and irregular migration, Valfovič claimed. “Our objectives remain unchanged: to prevent further escalation and avoid unintended incidents,” he said.

His remarks come amid heated exchanges between Belarus and Latvia.

On November 6, Latvian Foreign Minister Baiba Braže said in Warsaw that Belarus was using illegal migration to exert pressure on the European Union’s and NATO’s eastern borders and that this was part of Russia’s broader assault on European security.

Nearly 13,000 attempts by undocumented migrants from third countries to cross illegally into Latvia from Belarus had been prevented in 2026, Braže said.

This year, Latvia has been the main destination for irregular migrants seeking to enter the European Union via Belarus, accounting for 84.3 percent of attempted crossings, followed by Lithuania with 12.5 percent and Poland with 3.2 percent.

Latvia suspects Belarusian border control authorities of operating a criminal network that enables undocumented migrants from third countries to cross into Latvia and damage its infrastructure.

In July, Latvia’s Prosecutor General’s Office opened a criminal case against a group that, Prosecutor General Andris Aleksejevs said, was seeking to commit “especially serious crimes” against the Latvian state.

According to Aleksejevs, traffickers charge migrants around $5,000, usually in cryptocurrency, for an opportunity to enter Latvia. Migrants enter Belarus through Russia and then travel to camps near the Latvian border, where they wait for the green light to cross. The waiting period can range from a few days to several months.

Men wearing camouflage uniforms regularly visit the camps, gather the migrants and check whether they have paid for an illegal border crossing, Aleksejevs said.

Those who have not paid are sent to the border to damage its infrastructure. Those who refuse are abused and tortured until they comply, he said.

Migrants reportedly know exactly which facilities to target and how to damage them. Armed with various tools, including hacksaws, they damage the infrastructure and return to Belarus within seconds.