Meeting with Head of Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service Sergei Naryshkin

Cooperation between the special services of Belarus and Russia, including cooperation in technical upgrade, is bearing fruit, Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko said as he met with Head of Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service Sergei Naryshkin on 4 April.

“Taking into consideration various developments going on in the world, and not the last factor here is fight against terrorism, we see that the special military operation of the Russian Federation prompted us to have a scrupulous look at law enforcement, military and security services. As I often say, had this not happened, we would have had to come up with something else to spur ourselves to take action. Thus, we had to get the ball rolling. Yet, threats are very serious, sometimes unbelievable,” the Belarusian leader said.

Aleksandr Lukashenko noted that sometimes special services cannot keep up with everything, given the rapid technology advancement. This can give rise to certain issues. He thanked the Russian side for assistance in re-equipping and equipping the Belarusian special service. “You have probably noticed that we have intensified intelligence data exchange lately. And the quality of information has improved. This is mostly attributed to the increased activity of the State Security Committee. Yet, it is also important that Russians, first of all you, help us a lot with technical intelligence. To be frank, today it is hardly possible to get accurate, reliable, meaningful information without technology,” the President said.

“But people should understand: we are not Gods, we cannot foresee everything,” the Belarusian leader noted. “All sorts of bastards come to the surface in our country and yours, and they side with foreign terrorists. I cannot define them otherwise. This is not intelligence, not counterintelligence, these are our enemies. They [opponents and enemies abroad] find the right people here and lean on them,” Aleksandr Lukashenko said.

The head of state recalled the recent detention of the terrorist who “worked under the guidance of the Security Service of Ukraine and carried out tasks at its behest and on its tip-off”. “The thing that angers me the most is that we have already detained more than 30 accomplices. Who are they? They are bastards who live in our society (I can’t call these bastards otherwise), who help to commit illegal actions, terrorist attacks on their own land, against their compatriots,” the President said.

“Therefore, we have a lot of work to do. But I want to assure you that we are absolutely open for cooperation. You feel and see it. And we are grateful to you for the information that you provide, for putting us on high alert in time. I think that we have deeper cooperation ahead and you can count on us in those areas where we have strong competencies,” the head of state concluded.

In turn, Sergei Naryshkin thanked for the opportunity to meet. “I am very glad to return to the hospitable Belarusian land. Today, together with Ivan Stanislavovich [Belarus’ KGB Chairman Ivan Tertel] we will hold another joint meeting of the collegiums of our special services. I would like to emphasize that our interaction stands on an equal footing, it is of equally mutual interest. We have certain strong sides, our Belarusian colleagues also have their strengths. In recent years, we have intensified cooperation significantly in order to identify and prevent all external threats to our countries, to the Union State of Belarus and Russia. We are determined to move along this path in order to help the political leadership of our countries, first of all, to take well-made, accurate strategic decisions based on the intelligence information that we obtain,” Sergei Naryshkin said.