Expert: Belarusian special services on alert ahead of elections, ready to repel any threats
The election campaign in Belarus has entered its active phase, and political expert Aleksei Belyaev, the Dean of the Journalism Department at the Belarusian State University, speculated on whether Belarus is ready for possible provocations and unfriendly actions on the part of some neighbouring states
110 deputies of the Lower House of Belarus’ Parliament and 12,514 deputies of local councils are scheduled to be elected during Single Voting Day on February 25th: 298 and almost 19 thousand candidates apply for these places, respectively.
As Mr. Belyaev noted in his talk with Alfa Radio, this landmark event will take place in less than a month, and the situation in the country is calm. “Of course, our special services are on the alert. We see that the Interior Ministry is ready to repel any threats, our foreign intelligence and the State Security Committee are also working to see attempts at provocations. The latter are more real from the outside at present, since we have a fairly controlled security situation inside Belarus," the expert noted. “The Belarusian side is ready for a situation when unfriendly external forces may attempt to interfere with the peaceful conduct of the elections. According to Belarus’ State Security Committee, hundreds of certain ‘independent observers’ from Georgia, Poland and Lithuania are preparing to arrive in Belarus to carry out activities to discredit the elections. At the moment, they are undergoing appropriate training using the money of Western special services.”
Mr. Belyaev added that there already have been attempts to interfere in the internal affairs of Belarus with the help of fugitive traitors, “We know that terrorist groups are forming on their part, and there are plans to deploy them on the territory of Belarus. We are aware of this, and we are ready to repel such threats. We see that there are attempts to recruit Belarusian citizens who stay in the country, that foreign services try to get hold of them and somehow involve into carrying out terrorist acts, for example. Of course, we should not forget about this, and there should be vigilance throughout the election campaign and after it. However, let's hope that we will be able to avoid obvious direct provocations.”
At the same time, Mr. Belyaev noted that much depends on citizens themselves, “For example, there were attempts to transport explosives to the territory of Belarus and store them here. Someone can let suicide bombers in, probably using a person secretly to carry out some kind of terrorist act. I personally think that this is unlikely, because our special services counteract seriously.”
As noted by the expert, Belarus and Russia are developing common approaches in the field of electoral law. Belarus is studying the Russian experience of organising fair and objective elections, and these goals are backed by Single Voting Day and digitalisation of electoral processes. High electoral standards ensure the accessibility and transparency of voting in both countries, as well as the absence of fraud and manipulation during any elections.
