Kubrakov: Interior Ministry has everything to ensure security in Belarus
On February 29th, a few days before the Day of the Belarusian Police, celebrated in the country on March 4th, a large press conference was held in Minsk with the participation of Belarus’ Interior Minister Ivan Kubrakov. The conversation was substantial and interesting, covering a wide range of topics, including the potential and ability of the Belarusian police to resist all possible threats, high-quality training of personnel, and a reduction in the crime rate throughout the country. Other aspects were also discussed: the protection of children from violence, international co-operation, and why the police force takes on an attractive appearance.
Today, as always, the most important task for the internal affairs bodies, according to the Interior Minister, is to ensure security on the territory of Belarus. The Belarusian police have enough forces and special means to respond in special conditions, “We do everything based on the worst scenario that could happen, including, of course, the experience of 2020. We analyse the situation outside our country and study the experience of absolutely all countries. I can say with confidence that the forces and means that we have enable us to ensure the protection of public order.”
Speaking about modern challenges for the law enforcement system, Ivan Kubrakov indicated that constant monitoring of the situation both within the country and around our borders enables us to organise work through the Interior Ministry, “We perfectly see the current threats, especially what’s happening outside of Belarus. We plan our work taking into account the situation. We observe problems arising in society. It is important to work on prevention, avoiding the commission of crimes. Today we see a certain result: in 2023, we saw a decrease in crime, with the number of murders and serious bodily injuries decreasing. All murders, cases of grievous bodily harm and those resulting in death were all solved last year. The suspects have been detained and an investigation is underway. The number of robberies and rapes has also dropped.”
As far as staffing issues are concerned, Ivan Kubrakov underlined that today is the best result in terms of personnel over the past 13 years, so the lack of people is definitely not about the Belarusian police.
“After 2020, those destructive forces that tried to rock the situation in our country by intimidating the employees of the internal affairs bodies and presenting information in a light convenient for them, hoped that it would be the other way around. However, today young people are joining the internal affairs bodies. Over the past year alone, over 8 thousand young people have applied to the Internal Affairs Department. We refused about 50 percent, because we believe that the quality should be at the highest level. We cannot allow a random person to serve in the police,” said the Minister.
He also touched upon special training for certain units of the Interior Ministry, one of these being on combating cybercrime, “We see how many crimes are committed in this direction, so our employees must be prepared. The Academy of the Ministry of Internal Affairs has created special courses to train operational workers to combat cybercrimes. There are no problems in this regard.”
