MINSK, February 20. /TASS/. The Belarusian opposition abroad is working out a scenario of a coup or seizure of power during the country’s presidential election, President Belarus Alexander Lukashenko said.
"If we leave out all the fakes and pretenses, today our fugitives and their foreign handlers from the special services are working out three main scenarios of their actions for this period," the BelTA news agency quoted Lukashenko as saying. He recalled that the most important events for the country will be held in the near future: a single day of voting, as well as the formation of the All-Belarusian People's Assembly. "They will try to fool us again," the president said a meeting with senior national security officials.
According to him, the first and most desirable is "the organization of a coup or a violent seizure of power directly during the election campaign, but they [the opposition] themselves assess it as unlikely." "The second is the most important. Using the current election campaign [before the parliamentary elections] as a rehearsal and the first stage of preparation for a coup during the next presidential election in 2025," Lukashenko said. "All the main forces and resources will be thrown into this very plot, the process of searching for new boiling points in society, capable of provoking a new wave of protests, will be activated," he pointed out.
The president emphasized that the West is watching and waiting for the authorities to make a mistake in order to maximize its use for their own purposes. "The third scenario is a backup one: a long game with extensive use of soft power tools in case the first two options fail. In fact, this game has not stopped as long as sovereign Belarus has existed," Lukashenko said. He opined that this scenario can actually be used, while the first two scenarios are simply not allowed in Belarus.
"Today, some instruments of this soft power have been neutralized. We have radically revised approaches to the activities of anti-Belarusian foundations and alleged human rights organizations in Belarus. We have re-registered the parties," the head of state recalled. "But they are trying and will continue to try to influence emotionally vulnerable people through social networks and messengers, to develop new channels of communication and control over the masses," Lukashenko said. He noted that the opposition has to survive abroad, "so they will do anything."
As for the global players in the political arena, the stakes are even higher there. "It's not even about the lost millions [of dollars] spent on failed uprisings. More will be printed. It's about the loss of reputation at the level of international politics," he added.