Andrey Utsyuryn, the deputy secretary of state of Belarus’ Security Council, who had previously headed Alyaksandr Lukashenka’s Security Service for eight years, was arrested over his allegedly cooperating with the Russian FSB, Rosbalt reports.
According to the Russian media outlet, the Belarusian secret services might have exposed an anti-Lukashenka plot woven by some siloviki.
On April 24, president Lukashenka signed a decree on the dismissal of Colonel Andrey Utsyuryn from the post of State Secretary of the Security Council. The document became available on the National Legal Internet Portal on May 1. The decree notes that Utsyuryn was dismissed ‘for committing offenses that discredit the dignity of a military serviceman’. Nothing else was explained in the document.
According to unofficial information, the Belarusian KGB detained him for taking $150,000 bribe. The property of Utsyuryn and his relatives has been seized, a number of non-state media reports. The Belarusian KGB spokesman has declined comment on Utsyuryn’s case.
“Utsyurin is one of Lukashenka’s most long-time and loyal cronies, he had worked as his security officer since 1995. Over the past 25 years Andrey Utsyuryn has been part of Lukashenka’s inner circle, his family’s yes-man. The president’s youngest son Kolya literally grew up under his wing <…> But [the fact of] a bribe is enough to make a pig laugh in; for them, such settlements is a common practice. Thus, there has been another reason for his arrest. Rumours say it that the case was a plot, but I guess it is all about Utsyuryn’s close links to the Russian special services,” Rosbalt quotes a source in the Belarusian security agencies.
Another source in Belarusian law enforcement agencies echoes:
“Andrey Utsyuryn was detained over repeated and multiple information leaks to the Russian FSB and other bodies. He is not a spy in the usual sense, he ‘inherited’ the ties from the past. He is Russian, he studied, worked and kept company with colleagues from the Russian special services. Against the background of the current Moscow-Minsk situation, such behaviour is inadmissible for a person from Lukashenka’s inner circle.”
The main actors staging the plot were 5-6 top brass officers working for the MoD and the Interior Ministry.
“They aimed at preventing Alyaksandr Lukashenka from being re-elected amid the collapse of the national economy and his despotism. Several scenarios were being developed, from training and supporting Lukashenka’s real rival to its isolation and physical removal. The conspirators allegedly held Lukashenka’s eldect son Viktar as an alternative to the incumbent president; he is considered the ‘engine’. However, it was him who allegedly spilled the beans. There is also some suggestion that the plot was intentionally inspired by Alyaksandr Lukashenka and his closest associates,” the article reads.
