Meeting with senior officials of Belarus President Administration

Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko hosted meeting with senior officials of the Belarus President Administration on 1 October. It started with a moment of silence to commemorate the fallen KGB officer.

Aleksandr Lukashenko noted at the beginning of the meeting: “It is a sad day today [Belarusians bid farewell to the fallen KGB officer Dmitry Fedosyuk in Minsk today]. I will say something about it later on. It fits the topic we are going to discuss.”

Aleksandr Lukashenko revealed some details of what happened when the KGB officer was killed during a special operation in an apartment in Minsk on 28 September.

The President said: “I am told that when the guys entered the apartment, Dmitry was ahead of the others. He was actually covering the team by being the first to run into the apartment. The guys shouted a warning – they saw a person with a gun, virtually several seconds, and as usual [they shouted]: ‘Weapons on the floor!’ Instead this scumbag shot at Dmitry. He hit him right in the heart. And as Dmitry was dying, he shot two times to kill his murderer, he couldn’t fire the third round already.”

Aleksandr Lukashenko remarked he knows about the criticism from, for instance, mass media, which say the KGB officers should have worn protective gear, bullet-proof vests during the raid. “It was the first question I asked [the KGB chief Ivan] Tertel when I was told about the incident several minutes later. Why didn’t the guy have armor? They can be criticized for it. It was their initiative,” the head of state explained.

In his words, the KGB officers did not want to wear armor so as not to worry the general public, which badly responds to law enforcement officers in full gear. This is why they were wearing plain clothes in the course of verifying operational information. “Yes, police officers were present, several people in uniforms, a district police officer. There were no extra people so as not to worry the society,” Aleksandr Lukashenko noted.

“What can I say? It is difficult to condemn them for it. The guys simply didn’t want to draw attention to themselves in the course of protecting people,” he added.

The head of state pointed out that on that day law enforcement and security officers did not carry out some serious special operation. “The guys were sweeping a huge area after previously getting tips about the involvement of certain individuals in terrorism attempts,” he said.

The work began in early morning and a lot of people had been detained by the time the incident happened (till 14:00). “They are now giving statements. We will show all of them to you now. They use the label Workers’ Movement. So, we’ve started showing these ‘movers’ and will show all of them for you to understand what kind of a ‘worker’ movement it is,” the head of state noted.

The apartment raided by the KGB personnel, including Dmitry Fedosyuk, was also on the list they had been working on. “In the course of this work a local police department alerted them about a phone call for help from an apartment in the area they were working in. We can now suspect why the call was made. The guys saw the address was also on their list, there was a call for help, something may have happened there. And as good Slavs, as good Belarusians they rushed to this apartment. They knocked on the door but nobody opened it. The second call for help was made to the same police department,” Aleksandr Lukashenko said. He specified that one call had been placed by a man and another by a woman.

A video recording demonstrates what happened later. “The door was broken down, people went inside to help, to help the scoundrels calling from this apartment,” the head of state said. “And you also saw what they were doing meanwhile [preparing weapons and recording the event].”

“They had been preparing to record it. Nobody intended to die there. They wanted to broadcast it in real time (we know it already) over there, to Poland, to America,” Aleksandr Lukashenko explained.

The President pointed out that it was a routine visit to the apartment along with visits to other apartments on that day. Moreover, neither the criminal, who shot the KGB officer, nor his wife own the apartment. “The apartment is owned by a brother of the wife, who was recording it. Today we know for sure he was not a simple protester, as we put it mildly, but a genuine mutineer and so was that IT guy [that the KGB officer killed],” Aleksandr Lukashenko said.

In his words, a large set of data was acquired, it testifies that preparations for the provocation had been made in advance. “It is understandable they had been preparing for it. It is likely they had alerted each other about ongoing visits to various apartments since they use chat programs… This is why they had been preparing, they had been forewarned,” the President stressed.

Aleksandr Lukashenko said he was confident there is no need to rush to conclusions about events of 28 September: “It is necessary to calm down and stop making posts about this topic. Particularly stop offering opinions.”

“Certainly, the investigation will clear up everything. It may be too early both for our compatriots and citizens outside our country to give opinions based only on online videos. Naturally it may not have been a good idea to show it during an ongoing investigation. Nevertheless, people need to see who is who,” the President noted.

“Now let’s talk about the legislative process quality. The most important political decisions were made at the Belarusian People's Congress. They need to be implemented. They include the distribution of President's powers, a referendum on the Constitution. Let me remind you that the work on normative legal acts should not take months. We do not have time for this," the Belarusian leader stressed.

He noted that the documents that are put on the President's table should be carefully drafted, taking into account the study of alternative opinions. "This applies to purely legal and also economic issues," the President said. “All decisions on economy are made by the Council of Ministers. They must correspond to the political course of the country, the country’s development goals, our time-honored traditions and national interests."

Aleksandr Lukashenko urged to observe the principles of fair treatment of people, equal rights and equality of all citizens before the law. "Based on these criteria, the President’s Administration shall give an expert ideological and legal assessment of all documents sent to the President. You are the last instance before the President. You should not be swayed by anyone," the head of state demanded.

Aleksandr Lukashenko urged to take these objectives into account in the process of preparing meetings and events with the participation of the President: "These are public events instruments to people's understanding of our work, their involvement in events of national importance."

"Therefore, we need modern, interesting, creative formats. I repeat that initiatives should come from you, not from me. I will suggest some ideas too, provide guidance. I am involved in this work. I am not an outside observer here," Aleksandr Lukashenko said.