Western network plotting coup in Belarus – Russian intelligence
Western NGOs are preparing a new wave of anti-government protests in Belarus, which could be timed to coincide with the 2030 presidential election, the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) warned on Monday.
An attempt to overturn the result of the 2020 elections led to violent clashes throughout the country, but order was eventually restored. According to the SVR, Western sponsors were disappointed in the leaders of the riots, and are actively looking for new people to try and topple Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko.
“NGOs in Western nations, including ‘democratizing’ structures, agencies and foundations in the US as well as Britain, Germany, Poland and other European nations are building up assets to again attempt to destabilize the situation and change the constitutional order in Belarus,” the statement said.
In order to acheive a ‘color revolution,’ Western organizations are taking the stock of opposition activists in Belarus, the SVR said. Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, the central figure of the 2020 protests, and other people currently based in Lithuania and Poland “have demonstrated in the past years an absolute inability to influence political processes in their home nation in any way,” the agency said.
The SVR does not expect Belarusian citizens to support any foreign destabilization operation, because they have seen “the examples of Ukraine, Moldova and other nations destroyed in the name of Western geopolitical ambitions under slogans calling for the protection of democracy and human rights.”
The warning follows a thaw in the relationship between the Lukashenko government and the administration of US President Donald Trump. In recent months, Washington secured the release of dozens of Belarusian activists who had been sentenced for their roles in the 2020 riots.
The freed individuals included Tikhanovskaya’s husband Sergey, who was barred from running in the 2020 election and jailed for inciting an insurgency. Since his release, he has prodded supporters with video statements complaining that they were failing to donate enough money to the anti-Lukashenko cause.
Last October, the Lithuanian government downgraded Tikhanovskaya’s state-provided personal security, which was initially offered due to her supposed status as the legitimate head of Belarus.
Her office said she may be forced to move to Poland because of this, which Lithuanian Prime Minister Inga Ruginiene said was the political exile’s “personal business,” adding “I see neither benefit nor loss here.” She stressed that the Belarusian opposition is larger than Tikhanovskaya.
