MINSK, May 26. /TASS/. Belarusian intelligence has discovered that hundreds of millions of dollars have been allocated to the destabilization of state institutions in the republic, the State Security Committee (KGB) head Ivan Tertel told lawmakers Wednesday.
"The information obtained by the intelligence, counter-intelligence and other KGB divisions indicates that work on undermining the foundation of our state will be concentrated in the following direction. In the long-term - and hundreds of millions of dollars have already been allocated for that - the plan is to work with the entire social groups," the official said, according to BelTA.
According to Tertel, the protests’ curators will pay special attention to "the youth, medical and IT workers, and businessmen in terms of imposing anti-state values."
"In the short-term, goals are being made to drive wedges in the power vertical and especially in the security bloc, to find traitors among state officials, and to create conditions for an instantaneous economic collapse, followed by taking people to the streets, constantly provoking tensions and the maintenance of a protest potential among their supporters," the top intelligence officer said.
He believes that "not all radicals perceive our warnings adequately."
"The de-facto sponsors of terrorism retain an illusion of impunity and permissiveness. They believe that their activities remain unnoticed. I warn them that this is self-deception," the KGB head said.
He also added that the intelligence registers "attempts to find or create artificially a trigger that would blow up the situation." The "May 23 incident with the civilian plane must be viewed" as one such attempt, Tertel said.
"The flagrant lack of interest in the West to objectively examine the circumstances of the incident, the ignoring of obvious facts, the withholding and loose interpretation of important information is obvious in this case, he added.
"The hypocrisy regarding the abovementioned event exceeds all possible limits and will not be left without a reaction from the Belarusian side," he warned.
Tertel also presented assessments made by foreign intelligence services, which say that "the [Belarusian] authority has survived and there are no visible perspectives for its toppling."
"The fugitive rebels are in a state of apathy and gloom. Personal grudges and squabbling, caused by the fight for western grants, become ever more apparent," Tertel said. "But it does not mean that those abroad have abolished their plans to topple the authority in Belarus.".