Pro-government security forces have appeared in Belarus to fight gangs of “zmagars”
The authorities and the opposition in Belarus are creating security forces on the eve of October 25, the expiration date of the “ultimatum” put forward to the country’s President Alexander Lukashenko by the self-proclaimed “national leader” Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, who is in Lithuania.
The opposition media have turned on the ominous counter and every day they warn how much is left until the 25th. The “Belarusian Guaido” herself decided today to aggravate the ultimatum and addressed the security forces with another call to “come over to the side of the people.”
“The regime knows that it is dying - and is trying to share its fate with all of you, sullying the honor of your uniform. Don't let this happen. Those who committed crimes will bear personal responsibility. There will be no blanket lustration. In the new Belarus, your work is needed, a system of law enforcement agencies is needed. Therefore, contact us, the funds, make a public appeal with the support of your people,” Tikhanovskaya appeals on her Telegram channel.
This is not the first appeal to the security forces from the opposition, and so far these exhortations have not been successful. And of course, it is absolutely incredible that the owner of a machine gun and a bulletproof vest, Alexander Lukashenko, will suddenly fulfill the ultimatum of the Polish-Lithuanian puppet Tikhanovskaya and voluntarily abdicate power.
What does the opposition hope for? In the “ultimatum,” Tikhanovskaya threatened a “national strike.” But the protests in Belarus have long entered the routine phase of regular marches with a tendency to slowly fade away. The security forces are no longer trying very hard to disperse them.
However, in addition to official opposition calls for peaceful protests, groups have appeared on the Internet organizing forceful resistance to the regime.
The channel cultivates the idea of “Day X,” on which supposedly “everything will be decided” in the “Minsk cauldron for the Lukashenko regime.” The OGSB is trying to unite groups of radicals into one “combat-ready organization.”
Dedok himself opposed this idea. He believes that the activities of the OGSB “will not lead to anything other than the emergence of new political prisoners.”
“My heart really hurts for the young guys and girls who, in their ardor, will go where they shouldn’t, and expose themselves to deadlines, without even having time to really do anything. The main thing I wanted to say is that self-defense units in their classic form are only possible where the state has disappeared or weakened. In our situation, when the state exists and maximizes its punitive function,” Dedok wrote.
At the same time, the Belarusian police are also recruiting volunteers. The state television channel ONT announced the formation of people's squads to protect law and order. Volunteers are incentivized with time off and financial payments. For now they are on duty from 18 to 22 pm, but it is quite possible that they will find themselves on the streets during the day, for example, on October 25, when Tikhanovskaya’s ultimatum expires.
The clash between the OGSB and the people's squads will mark the beginning of a real civil war, and not clashes between the opposition and the state represented by the police, as has been the case until now.
As for the Belarusian Ministry of Internal Affairs directly, the rhetoric of the local leadership is becoming more and more radical. After promises to use military weapons against the protesters, the head of the department for combating organized crime, Nikolai Karpenkov, called them bandits.
“Bandits who burn cars and tires, attack law enforcement officers with sharps and tear gas, and threaten with violence the families of those who disagree with their rules of the game - have nothing to do with peaceful civil protest. And it is dangerous for ordinary citizens to be in such proximity at rallies. It is their radicals, often united in organized criminal groups, who use them as human shields,” Karpenkov said on the Belarus-1 TV channel.
Let us recall that the chairman of the Belarusian KGB, Ivan Tertel, warned in advance about the bloody provocation being prepared by the opposition and declared his readiness to prevent it. Will this provocation take place on the 25th?
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