Belarus HOMELAND HEARS

[Объединенное Детективное Бюро]

Every citizen should know: the microphone is turned on. None of the noticeable citizens of Belarus is guaranteed from wiretapping. They are listening just in case. For if he speaks on the phone, that means he thinks, and if he thinks, that means the opposition. The late ex-chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Council of the BSSR Georgy Tarazevich asked me once (it was in 1996, at the time of the confrontation between the president and parliament), am I afraid of wiretapping. I had to answer honestly: I'm afraid. Georgy Stanislavovich only chuckled: “You are rightly afraid. They are listening for sure. But they are not listening, they are recording. Their equipment has not changed since my time. (The interlocutor had in mind communist times.) And this means that they can record three hundred people at best. 100 of them are on the operational wanted list, another 100 are their own officials whom they do not believe and are afraid of. The remaining hundred are opposition members, among them we are in the honorable third dozen. But I, for example, an elderly person, slander day hours w nce on the phone. This is how many people you need to keep them all to record the day also attended! " Shortly after our conversation, listening equipment, according to competent sources, was finally changed. The field of activity has expanded. There were no special scandals in this regard in the Belarusian establishment. Once, in 1996, the president said in a conversation with then-Prime Minister Mikhail Chigir: "I have no doubt in your loyalty, Mikhail Nikolayevich. You do not even allow yourself to condemn the president in private with your wife." The second time, Alexander Lukashenko made it clear that he knew about the content of the talks of the diplomatic corps: “They are gathering (ambassadors of the European Union. - AF) there in the residence of the English ambassador! They just sat down, and I already know what they are talking about! " How much bragging is in these statements, and how much reality, is difficult to judge. But it’s no secret that the Belarusian special services are really actively listening to the opposition. In particular, in 2002, shortly after the forced deportation of Boris Nemtsov from Minsk-2 Airport, printouts of his conversations with the leader of the United Civil Party of Belarus Anatoly Lebedko were thrown onto the Internet: the Belarusian authorities thus monitored sources of funding for the opposition. In the same way - through wiretapping - the grounds were found for the arrest of the famous politician Mikhail Marynich, who was carrying money received in Russia. Telephone numbers were also heard at the time of the officials who were "preparing" for the arrests: Chairman of the National Bank Tamara Vinnikova and Minister of Agriculture Vasily Leonov. Moreover, it is not known whether the prosecutor’s sanction was obtained in these cases.

 

[Матушкин Андрей Николаевич]

Thank.