MINSK, December 16. /TASS/. Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said that all organizations that were funded from abroad and had been plotting a coup were eliminated.

"Traitors cannot be forgiven. There is no forgiveness for those who tried to turn the country upside down and hand it over ‘there.’ We see them and ferret [them] out by dozens if not hundreds," the Belarusian leader said during a meeting with the government, according to the BelTA news agency. "We rooted out all these organizations that were bankrolled from overseas and were organizing a coup and an uprising," he explained.

According to him, these organizations are asking to be reinstated. "They will never be reinstated," the Belarusian president affirmed.

That said, the head of state stressed that "any foundations, any organizations may exist but [they should] be involved in specific matters for the benefit of the homeland." "Let them protect the sick, treat COVID, let them help the Chernobyl survivors, the poor, the needy, the disabled, or treat children and so on - they’re welcome to do so, go ahead. If somebody wants to create foundations, then be my guest," he noted.

Earlier, the Belarusian Investigative Committee stated that it possessed information on the involvement of the leaders and staff of a number of non-governmental organizations and media outlets in murky financial flows, above all, coming from abroad, the non-payment of taxes and the financing of protest rallies that were held following last August’s presidential election. The Belarusian State Security Committee (KGB) reported that it was conducting a large-scale countrywide operation "on cleaning out radically inclined individuals" with numerous searches conducted of human rights activists, NGOs, non-profits and Western media outlets.