- The EUobserver news website on Monday published an audio file of a 2012 conversation in which the then leader of the Belarussian KGB can be heard planning murders of dissidents in Germany.
- You can hear Vadim Zaitsev planning the assassinations, while he is putting pressure on Alexander Lukashenko, who was the president of Belarus at the time and remains so.
- “It’s important to me that no one even thinks of the KGB … How to start an accidental explosion, how to start arson and not leave traces, murders and things like that – it’s unclear,” it was heard Zaitsev says.
- It was not previously known that three dissidents mentioned in the recording of Zaitsev were targeted.
- A Dutch intelligence official told Insider that the US had probably already had such a survey and passed it on to Germany, which then prevented the hits.
- Zaitsev was also heard about the death of a fourth dissident, journalist Pavel Sheremet, who was killed later in 2016 in a car bomb in Ukraine.
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A leaked audiotape of the then head of the Belarusian KGB planning the killings of three Belarusian dissidents in Germany, on the orders of President Alexander Lukashenko, recorded eight years ago, has European diplomats and intelligence agents on the neck fetched.
The poll, obtained by the EUobserver news website this week, apparently showed Vadim Zaitsev pointing to updates on operations to kill three dissidents in Germany, while citing pressure from Lukashenko.
Zaitsev was at the time the leader of Belarus’ intelligence service, still known under the KGB designation in the Soviet era. Lukashenko has been the president of Belarus since 1994.
EUobserver said he had leaked the recording and another file of Igor Makar, a Belarusian opposition activist.
You can listen to the recording on the EUobserver website.
“The president is waiting for these operations,” Zaitsev told a group of specialists from the KGB’s special operations division known as the Alpha Group, according to EUobserver.
“It’s important to me that no one even thinks of the KGB.”
According to EUobserver, the meeting on April 11, 2012 included the discussion of assassinations planned for three dissident Belarusians living in Germany – Oleg Alkaev, Vladimir Borodach and Vyacheslav Dudkin – who were members of the country’s military or intelligence services before they defected. has.
“It is important to me that no one even thinks about the KGB,” Zaitsev said according to the EUobserver’s translation of the audio recording of the planned European hits.
“It’s clear how we can drown or shoot someone. It’s clear. But how to start an accidental explosion, how to start arson and not leave traces, murders and things like that – it’s unclear,” he said. said.
You can read EUobserver’s English transcript of the audio here.
Lukashenko carries a weapon and wears combat gear on Belarusian state television. Belarusian state television
None of the three dissidents were previously known as targets. All three are alive.
A Dutch intelligence official told Insider that information about the plot in Belarus had probably been known for a long time, which could have prevented further action.
The officer asked not to be named because they are not authorized to speak to the press, but Insider knows their identity.
“If a news site is a transcript of the headline of the [Belarusian] KGB orders murders. I think it’s safe to say that the Americans have it, “said the official, who described the audio file as credible but would not provide additional information.
“The Americans are obliged to pass on information about the possible murder of almost anyone, let alone to one of their closest allies in Germany,” he said hypothetically, refusing to give details.
A future death is graphically and accurately described
According to EUobserver, the 2012 meeting also focused on the assassination of Pavel Sheremet, a dissident Belarusian journalist living in Russia at the time.
Sheremet died in an explosion in a car bomb in Kiev in 2016, but according to EUobserver, the 2012 discussion was graphic and almost exactly how he eventually died.
Without giving details, the Dutch official said Lukashenko’s responsibility for the murder of Sheremet had long been established, at least by the intelligence services.
Investigators are investigating a damaged car at the site where journalist Pavel Sheremet was killed on July 20, 2016 by a car bomb in central Kyiv, Ukraine. Valentyn Ogirenko / Reuters
After first insisting that the three German traitors should mysteriously die without ties to Belarus, apparently because of concerns about the Germans, Zaitsev said in the recording that Sheremet’s death reveals, macabre and obviously the result of Belarusian intelligence must become. for an increased deterrent factor.
‘We will plant [a bomb] and so on and this f gear is taken down in f pieces – legs in one direction, arms in the other direction, “said Zaitsev according to EUobserver.” If anything [looks like] natural causes, it will not come to people’s minds in the same way. ‘
Zaitsev also ordered that Sheremet be placed under the supervision of the KGB, according to EUobserver. Reports on the edits were leaked to the newsroom next to the audio file, which you can read here.
According to Reuters, Ukrainian police issued a statement on Monday – the same day EUobserver published Zaidev’s recording – that they would investigate documents and audio recordings dating back to 2012 in their investigation into the Sheremet murder.
The revelations are likely to further isolate Lukashenko, who remains politically and diplomatically isolated from the EU, after last year’s deeply criticized presidential election.
Opposition forces claim that Lukashenko stole the election, leading to months of widespread protests across Belarus.