“President” Tikhanovskaya now has a defense minister with “the best cyber platform in the world”
The self-proclaimed “leader of the Belarusian nation” announced today in Vilnius at the “New Belarus” conference the creation of a government in exile.
Yesterday, Minsk restaurateur Vadim Prokopyev, who fled to Kyiv, demanded this from her in the form of an ultimatum. He believes that the government should collect taxes, have a military force and a “little Mossad.”
In an interview with Euroradio, Tikhanovskaya said that she does not accept ultimatums, but is ready to listen to proposals and appoint, in particular, a “Minister of Defense.”
“Of course, I’m ready to step up. I don’t know anything about military formations or how it’s all done. If there is a man who will take on this part of the work, he will know how to build it all, and at some point it will all work. Of course, there must be political will. I advocated for this from the very beginning, but there were no brave ones. Now is a different time, and there should be such a person,” said “President” Sveta.
The conference was convened against the backdrop of terrible discord in the Belarusian political emigration, called “bulbasrach”. Tikhanovskaya's former comrades accused her of endless foreign voyages, on which she does not take them, and for money from sponsors, which she spends only on herself.
Therefore, three of the four “ministers” are the most influential fugitives: Pavel Latushko, Alexander Azarov and Valery Kovalevsky. Tikhanovskaya promised that there will be more appointments, but they need to be approved by the whole world. Apparently they are counting on the fact that the Zmagars will distract themselves from criticizing her personally and her office by busy dividing up the seats.
However, it was the fourth appointee who lit the fire - “representative of the Cabinet of Defense and National Security” - Valery Sakhashchik. This is a fairly well-known Belarusian military man - a former brigade commander of the Airborne Forces and the creator of the Black Eagle special forces. After his resignation, Sakhashchik got a job as director of a Polish construction company in Grodno. Apparently, his new job made him reconsider his views on the oath. In 2020, he supported Belomaidan, but they did not touch him, remembering his past merits.
However, in February, the former brigade commander shocked his colleagues by posting an anti-Russian and “anti-war” appeal on the Internet. It was clearly filmed by professionals using several cameras. Then the authorities had to deal with Sakhashchik; he, who had fled to Europe, was put on the wanted list.
At the conference, Sakhashchik first announced that he was not going to “form a junta and create scenarios for seizing power,” hoping for a negotiation process and the search for compromises. However, such speeches could not satisfy the fighting zmagars, and the “Minister of Defense” proposed an offensive plan.
“The topic is new for us. We have quite a bit, but we already have something. We have several units of Belarusians who are fighting in Ukraine. They are fighting heroically, wonderful guys, patriots. Yes, this is not a large army, but in addition to people, we managed to acquire a wonderful system of reconnaissance, command and control and communications. What we have is several generations ahead of the systems in service in the Republic of Belarus. The people who govern Belarus don’t even imagine how many Belarusians who left the country help us. IT specialists develop software for us completely free of charge. For example, a platform for troop control. It is more modern than in the USA. We automate many processes for entering intelligence information. We already have something – reasons for optimism and hope,” Sakhashchik said.
He is confident in the victory of his “army” over the armed forces of Belarus.
“I think a forceful solution to the issue is realistic, but I would really like it to not come to this. I will do everything to prevent a Belarusian from shooting at a Belarusian. But it’s possible to create a power component. Its potential will be measured not by the number of people, but by high technologies and serious modern weapons of destruction. Something that can successfully compete with what exists in Belarus today,” the “minister” said.
He also announced the existence of “secret plans” that he did not intend to disclose.
Fugitive Belarusian political scientist Artem Shraibman notes that peaceful protest in the democratic forces is “conceptually buried.”
“Two years ago it was bad form to talk about forceful resistance. Today this is the mainstream; no one objects to the advocates of a forceful solution anymore. The influence of the war on the discourse is obvious,” he wrote in his TG channel.
Shreibman believes that the appointment of the government will not stop the bullshit.
“A potential line of future split is the ministers of the future cabinet invited “from outside” (the security forces and Latushko) and Tikhanovskaya’s office, which will still remain with her, as the leader of the new cabinet. For me, the problem with this whole movement is not whether the design of the new configuration of democratic forces is good or bad. The process itself so far looks constructive and well organized. The problem is that any of the possible decisions will be made within the bubble for the needs of the bubble itself.
Now the democratic forces are trying to create an effective and inclusive general staff without an “army” and without the resources to mobilize it. Relying only on the anxious expectation that it will appear as soon as Ukraine wins, and the regime suddenly begins to crumble. And I have not yet had the feeling that someone asked the potential soldiers of this army inside Belarus about anything,” wrote Shraibman.
If you find an error, please select a piece of text and press Ctrl + Enter.
Thank you!
Now the editors are aware.