NAROVLYA DISTRICT, 26 April (BelTA) – Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko revealed details of the conspirators' plan to stage a coup in Belarus as he talked to journalists during his trip to the Polesye State Radiation and Environmental Reserve on 24 April, BelTA has learned.
According to the head of state, the conspirators had several scenarios. Initially, they planned to eliminate the president at the 9 May parade. However, it is difficult to imagine how this plan could be implemented in Belarus, so they abandoned the initial idea.
Then they considered attacking the presidential motorcade. For that they even purchased grenade launchers and brought them to Belarus, Aleksandr Lukashenko said. However, such a scenario was difficult to realize too: for safety reasons the motorcade moves at a high speed, and the probability of hitting it is very small.
The third scenario implied an armed attack on the president's countryside residence. $10 million was allocated for the destruction of the residence together with the head of state, and $1 million for the sniper. “We watched them for a long time ago. Do you think we carried out this operation in Moscow out of the blue? We followed them, they were supposed to come to Minsk to carry out this operation. But as soon as this film was released [the investigative film "The Mankurts" on the ONT TV channel], they got more cautious and decided to meet in Moscow rather than Minsk. We watched their every step," Aleksandr Lukashenko said.
Among the conspirators, the president said, was a member of the special services who posed as ‘a dirty army general'. "He was our agent. He did a very good job. I appreciate what he has done. He helped us a lot, a brave guy. They wanted to raise a revolt in the army through him," the head of state added.
Commenting on the reasonings regarding the appearance of the conspirators (they say that they do not look like murderers and rebels), Aleksandr Lukashenko said that, of course, they were not supposed to carry out the attack or eliminate representatives of the authorities personally.
“I know Feduta: he is a traitor. He was part of the team of the current president. Vyacheslav Frantsevich [Kebich] infiltrated him into my team to know what I was doing. What kind of team did I have then? There were only five people on it. While sitting on my team he informed Kebich's team. Of course, the news about Feduta being a revolutionary made me laugh. Give him some extra money, and he would forget about a revolution. Of course, he would not commit terrorist acts, would not kill the president, his children, and so on. However, let us give him credit: he is not a fool, and they have engaged him. He is probably not the only one. These are the informants. With the help of these people, who are not silly, they gathered information, analyzed it, and devised options. His scenario was along the lines of Anwar Sadat's [the organization of a terrorist attack in Belarus similar to the assassination of former Egyptian President Anwar Sadat in 1981].
Aleksandr Lukashenko also emphasized another factor: the conspirators planned to use the army to blockade Minsk, together with special police units and the forces of the Ministry of Interior Affairs and KGB. He explained that all these units are armed, and if they were able to pit them against each other, then ‘the worst ever civil war' could have started in Belarus.
The conspirators also had plans to disconnect Minsk's power system. Russian President Vladimir Putin also drew attention to this point during the recent talks with his Belarusian counterpart. In fact, this means that they were planning a cyber attack on the country. Such an operation can be carried out only at the government level. A few hackers will not be able to do this.
According to the president, new details of the case will be made public soon. The investigative film about these events is being prepared by the ONT TV channel. And even that film will not show everything. “This is just the tip of the iceberg,” he said.
The head of state recalled that several terrorist groups had been apprehended in Belarus. Mass media reported on some of them. Others were not revealed, but they are already making confessions. In his words, all of these things are links in one chain.
“Before they start talking, they should think that we will show them make their statements. We have already seen all that. I told them when I visited the detention center. I read out a document where that scumbag Tikhanovsky, the spouse of the newly-minted ‘president', said that they wanted to put the youngest son in jail: we will come to power and put him behind the bars. A lawyer wondered: ‘How? He's under age.' ‘Rubbish, we will find out a way.' This is how it all started. We will show all that to people,” the Belarusian leader said.
According to Aleksandr Lukashenko, the list of Belarusian civil servants whom the new government planned to intern included more than 30 people. “This is their policy. God forbid they came to power. No way. The events which happened last year were bad, but without them we would have never exposed them. We see who is who, and now we can work quietly,” the president emphasized.
The head of state also recalled how the opposition commented on his recent talks with the president of Russia: they were saying that Lukashenko went to Russia to surrender Belarus. “It is not Lukashenko who worked out a plan of surrender for Belarus. It is them who are betraying the country,” he said. “They surrendered long ago, and all they needed to do was to come to power, to say that they have power. What for? To invite NATO troops to Belarus and to deploy them at the eastern border near Smolensk. It was a springboard – I always said that – for launching an attack on Russia. It was the first step. No matter how hard they deny it, today we see that it is true. They got what they deserved. Now they known that we will not give up easily.”
