MOSCOW, May 24. /TASS/. A coup attempt in Belarus likely involved US intelligence agencies, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in an interview with the Argumenty i Fakty newspaper.

"The armed coup attempt, which involved a US national, is quite in line with the West’s policy to interfere in the domestic affairs of the former Soviet countries and use the entire range of color revolution tools. It’s hard to imagine that US intelligence agencies could have been unaware of such a large-scale activity. This is reminiscent of the Ukrainian coup that took place in February 2014," Lavrov noted.

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said on April 17 that opposition activist Grigory Kostusev, political scientist Alexander Feduta and lawyer Yuri Zenkovich had plotted a coup and an assassination attempt on him and his sons. Lukashenko blamed the plot on US intelligence services and the US authorities. According to Belarusian investigators, the coup attempt was funded from overseas and the plotters maintained close ties with terrorist groups. Nine individuals have been charged with attempting a coup in Belarus. The country’s State Security Committee (KGB) said earlier that the detained had pleaded guilty and were cooperating with the investigation.