Pro-Russia lobby puts fear of armed groups into Lukashenka - expert about arrests in Belarus
It is the pro-Russia siloviki lobby that keeps discrediting foreign and domestic policy of the Belarusian leadership, political analyst Arsen Sivitski believes.
In his opinion, some Belarusian security officials instructed by the Kremlin, disinformed president Alyaksandr Lukashenka and placed a plan of mass arrests on his table.
“All assessments and opinions voiced by Lukashenka and later broadcast by mass media, do mirror the assessments of the Russian leadership which were factored in the joint exercises ‘Interaction-2015’ and ‘Slavic Brotherhood-2015’. According to their scenario, the situation in Belarus was ‘destabilized’ by ‘illegal right-wing armed groups’ – but now we see that Belarusian security officials have been tasked to trace such groups,” Sivitski stresses.
According to the expert, the main threat is still coming from Russia due to its military and economic pressure that destabilizes the social and economic situation in Belarus and provokes protests.
Illegal armed formations and subversive groups can also come to from that [Russian] side, he noted.
The West has no reason to instigate a color revolution in Belarus, it is the Russians who may can take advantage of the crisis in our coutry, Sivitski suggests.
In addition, Russia apparently stages special information operations in EU countries to discredit Minsk’s foreign policy, the political analyst warns:
“Their diplomats are trying to disinform local elites about Russia’s plans to deploy its military forces in Belarus. They say that Lukashenka has agreed to Moscow’s proposals and he is about to fulfill all political and military demands of the Kremlin.”
Police arresting Belarusians (ENG video)
On March 25, Belarusians came to main squares of their cities to protest the ‘parasite’ law and celebrate the unofficial Freedom Day. But the Minsk riot police brutally dispersed the protest. Hundreds of people – even women, elderly people, journalists and ordinary passers-by – were arrested, battered and jailed. On Monday, judicial machinery was launched.
