MINSK, 26 May (BelTA) – Belarus lives and works normally despite unprecedented pressure. Chairman of the State Security Committee (KGB) Ivan Tertel made the statement in the Oval Hall of the House of Government on 26 May, BelTA has learned.
The official said: “Despite the continued unprecedented pressure on Belarus the country lives and works in normal mode. According to our evaluations, the situation in worker collectives of enterprises, organizations, educational institutions is healthy and controllable as a whole. Despite foreign attempts to shake the economy it demonstrates quite good dynamics. In confidential reports foreign intelligence services and the subversive centers they control state that ‘the government has survived and there are no foreseeable prospects of bringing it down. The fugitive rebels show dismay and apathy. Personal grudges and quarrels caused by the fight for Western grants are becoming more and more pronounced.' End of quote. But it doesn't mean that foreign powers have abandoned plans to overthrow the Belarusian government.”
In his words, it is obvious that the adversary has huge resources, tried and tested technologies, and the ability to play the long game. “The information obtained by intelligence, counterintelligence, and other divisions of the KGB indicates that the work to undermine foundations of our state will concentrate in the following areas in the future. Work will affect entire social groups in the long term. Hundreds of millions of dollars have already been appropriated for it. First of all, young Belarusians starting with school students, healthcare workers, IT specialists, entrepreneurs in order to make them embrace anti-state values. In the near future they intend to split the power vertical and particularly the defense, law enforcement, and security bloc, find traitors among civil servants, enable conditions for the downfall of the economy in order to encourage Belarusians to participate in street riots. Work will be done to maintain tensions and the protest potential among their followers,” the KGB chief noted.
Understanding that methods of so-called peaceful protests produce no results, the adversaries will follow the path of escalation. Some of them have switched to methods of terror and preparations for armed revolts with direct involvement of interested foreign forces. “Unfortunately, not all the radicals and their curators hear our warnings adequately. Sponsors of actual terrorism keep the illusion of impunity and all-permissiveness. They are confident their efforts will go unnoticed. I warn them they delude themselves,” Ivan Tertel stressed. “We see constant attempts to find or artificially create the trigger that will blow up the situation. We estimate the incident with the passenger aircraft on 23 May is such an attempt. We see a genuine lack of interest on the part of the collective West in objectively investigating circumstances of the incident. The West ignores obvious facts, hides and freely interprets important information. I would like to note that hypocrisy with regard to the incident exceeds all limits and the Belarusian side will respond to it.”
The KGB chief also spoke about the arrest of Roman Protasevich. “Yes, he has been detained. Investigation is in progress. There is no doubt that the person fully matches the definition of a terrorist, a mercenary, a participant of bloody events as part of the notorious Azov Battalion and abuses and murders of civilians in Ukraine's southeast. It is not only our information and information of the investigators but facts readily available in mass media. These include personal confessions of Roman Protasevich, which are publicly available. I would like to stress that this citizen of the Republic of Belarus used this experience against our country. He was an organizer and coordinator of mass riots, which threatened lives and health of common Belarusians and law enforcement officers. He is the head of an Internet channel, which has been recognized as extremist according to our legislation,” he stated.
According to Ivan Tertel, the hysterics of his foreign masters in Lithuania, Poland, and some other western countries and Ukraine is understandable. He had been guaranteed immunity from the crimes he was committing. “Their fear regarding Protasevich's cooperation with the investigation is obvious, too. He is now providing testimony about sponsors of subversive activities against Belarus, mechanisms of subversive activities, the intelligence services, politicians, and organizations behind the subversive activities. I promise we will talk about it in detail soon,” he said.
The KGB chief added: “We know exactly that in this situation when foreign forces have failed to achieve geopolitical goals, when huge investments have failed to pay off only thanks to the strong will of the head of state, interested circles of Western countries and their intelligence services expect that in two weeks, one month, six months, maybe a year we will relax, stop being vigilant and they will get another chance to strike and overturn the country. We have no right to justify their expectations. In these conditions those, who are starting this mess, have to understand that we will defend our national interests ruthlessly and persistently against all odds.”
