MINSK, 29 November (BelTA) - Law enforcement agencies are ready to prevent any provocations during the referendum in Belarus, State Secretary of the Security Council of Belarus Aleksandr Volfovich said in an interview to STV Channel, BelTA has learned.
“We have learned a lot of lessons after 2020. It was an unleashed information war. We made a bit of a mistake then, turning a blind eye to Telegram channels, chats which published appeals, dirt, lies and fake news. Some people believed it, took to the streets, tried to prove something (without any understanding of what it was), some people just walked in the general masses, like in a march. At first, we looked through our fingers at this fake news, these lies, but we had to react earlier,” said Aleksandr Volfovich.
According to him, the relevant amendments were made to the legislation after that. “During this time, about 300 chats were recognized as extremist, about 100 chats were terminated, 17 groups of people who worked on various YouTube, Internet platforms were also recognized as extremists. We shut down some chat rooms and others keep popping up. We need to respond to this, to give people the information, to tell the truth. Our people see how the President, the government, the heads of government agencies work, what decisions they take for the development of the country, for the benefit of our people,” the state secretary said.
According to Aleksandr Volfovich, law enforcement agencies are ready to suppress any provocations during the referendum. “I am sure that today the authorities understand how to act, what to do, how to interact in order to prevent what happened a year ago. Therefore, I responsibly declare, the law enforcement bodies, the military organization of the state, which includes all ministries and departments, are ready to suppress any negative consequences in our country,” the state secretary said.
