Meeting with Interior Minister Igor Shunevich

Belarus President Aleksandr Lukashenko met with Interior Minister Igor Shunevich to receive his report on 28 February.

First of all, the head of state asked the minister to brief him on the performance of law enforcement bodies in 2018. “Please brief me on your service and operational activities. In the near future we will seriously analyze the performance of law enforcement agencies in general. The peculiarity is that I don’t need just the reports of any law enforcement bodies, I would like you to point out existing problems. In this case, in the operation of our police,” Aleksandr Lukashenko said.

The President also asked about grave crime statistics and clear-up rate, the investigation of criminal cases which are under his control. “Besides, tell me about the major concerns in our society. It is very important,” the head of state said.

Aleksandr Lukashenko also spoke about the personnel policy at the Interior Ministry. He asked if there are any problems in this regard and if any decisions are necessary. “AS far as I can judge from the written report, the personnel shortage is about 10% in certain departments. Maybe, we should not do anything special there and reduce personnel numbers in some other departments,” the President suggested.

According to the head of state, there was a suggestion to toughen responsibility for DUI in the country. “This toughening will not, perhaps, require this number [of traffic policemen]. I am saying it as an example. Although there has already been a serious personnel reduction, so it will be not easy to reduce personnel numbers even more. But nothing is impossible,” Aleksandr Lukashenko said. “Probably, we will not be able to answer all these questions today, we will better address them at the big conference.”

The head of state warned that police will be in the spotlight at the coming meeting because this is the biggest division in the system of law enforcement bodies. “And our police are related to many home and even foreign policy issues,” the President added.

Aleksandr Lukashenko also asked about the performance of the Belarusian association of physical education and sport Dinamo and Dinamo Minsk HC. “We need to discuss these issues,” he remarked.