Łukašenka tells KGB appointees to crack down on foreign intelligence

May 20, Pozirk. The Committee for State Security (KGB) must crack down on foreign intelligence activity in Belarus, Alaksandar Łukašenka said today as he appointed unnamed officers to positions at the agency.

“Our neighbors – Poles, Lithuanians and Latvians – respond to the good neighborhood policy we have offered, I mean the visa-free space, in the opposite way,” Łukašenka said, as quoted by his press office.

“In addition to information warfare, we see an attempt to force a war of sabotage groups on us. This is what we have noticed recently and what we are fighting against. We see that they train different kinds of armed units, even what they call regiments, to carry out an invasion of Belarusian territory,” he said in an apparent reference to Belarusian fighters in Ukraine.

Łukašenka denounced international sanctions as “economic sabotage and war against Belarus” organized “in violation of all international agreements and all international treaties.”

“For example, they have obligations toward us as a landlocked country. They have no right to block us. It is an international agreement. But you know what is happening in spite of it,” he said in an apparent reference to Lithuania’s refusal to transship Belarusian goods.

Łukašenka highlighted the importance of preventing “corruption and protection racket” by government agencies.

“You run counterintelligence in audit and law-enforcement agencies,” he said.

“You must take relevant measures and inform me if anyone wants to expand corruption activity in Belarus.

“Unlike other countries, as we often see it in movies on TV, etc., we have no place for secret monkey business such as protection racket. If there was protection racket, it would seriously hit our people.

“These wild small favors: ‘I will help you but you will give me something in return.’ There should be no ‘you to me, me to you’ in Belarus.”

Łukašenka called on the KGB to keep an eye on domestic problems while conducting intelligence and counterintelligence operations. “I really hope that agents will at least inform me of certain issues on time. And that you will take appropriate measures where necessary,” he said.

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