Lukashenko said that the opposition is allegedly preparing a coup d’état in Belarus in 2025

2024-02-20 10:36:33

“The opposition abroad will use the current election campaign as a rehearsal and initial stage to prepare for a coup d’état during the upcoming presidential elections in 2025,” he said on February 20. Alexander Lukashenko at a meeting with the management of state bodies of the security system in Minsk.

According to him, this is the main of the three scenarios that the emigrants and their foreign supervisors from the special services are allegedly working out for this period, BelTA quotes Lukashenka.

Lukashenko stated that the most desirable scenario is allegedly “the organization of a coup d’état or a violent seizure of power directly during the period of election campaigns”, which is considered “unlikely”.

Lukashenka said that they do not yet see real prerequisites “for shaking up the situation by analogy with 2020”. Another scenario is a “game for perspective” with extensive use of soft power instruments in case of failure of the first two options for the development of events.

“In fact, this game has not stopped as long as sovereign Belarus exists,” he added.

Lukashenko also accused the Polish and American intelligence agencies of allegedly “preparing a large-scale provocation against the Polish civilian population, which will be blamed on Russia and Belarus.”

Lukashenko did not provide any evidence for his words.

In 2020, after the falsified presidential elections, months of mass protests were held in Belarus, which were brutally dispersed, tens of thousands of Belarusians were persecuted, arrested, tried and tortured, and were killed. Opposition leaders ended up in prisons and in exile. Repression will not end in 2024 either. The authorities closed down opposition parties, many public organizations, and independent trade unions.

Lukashenka also named the task of the Ministry of Defense for the next year as qualitative transformation of the army and improvement of the defense system.

“We must give priority attention to the combat training of military units and units. Especially since 2024 is the Year of Field Study in the Armed Forces. As the president, I look at the work of the power bloc comprehensively and quite critically. And even picky. The time is like this. Every mistake can cost us dearly. The price is peace and security of people,” he said.