President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko told reporters that $ 10 million had been set aside for his assassination by the organizers of the planned assassination attempt against him, the state news agency BelTA reported.
He said armed conspirators would have attacked him at his country residence. $ 10 million has been set aside for this purpose, with $ 1 million earmarked for the sniper.
According to Lukashenko, the conspirators have developed several scenarios for his assassination. First they planned to kill him at the military parade on May 9. An attack on the presidential motorcade was then considered, with coup plotters buying and importing grenade launchers into Belarus. The third scenario was to attack his country residence, the president said.
He said a special services agent posing as a traitor general had been deployed among the conspirators.
“This was our agent. The young man. Thanks to the man, he helped us a lot, did not get scared. They wanted to use the army through him, “Lukashenko said.
According to him, the conspirators planned to blockade Minsk with the help of the army, where there are forces of the special units of the Interior Ministry, riot police, internal troops and the KGB. Mr Lukashenko said a possible clash between these forces and the army could have led to “the worst civil war in any country”. According to him, the conspirators as well planned to shut down the energy system of the capital Minsk.
On March 18, the head of the Belarusian KGB, Ivan Tertel, said that the activities of an organized terrorist group that was preparing the physical liquidation of President Alexander Lukashenko and members of his family, as well as organizing an armed coup, had been thwarted, TASS reported.
According to the investigation, the main organizer of the conspiracy was a Belarusian-born lawyer detained in Moscow Yuri Zenkovich, who has lived in the United States since 2007 and has American citizenship. The leader of the opposition Belarusian People’s Front party, Grigory Kostusev, and political scientist Alexander Feduta have also been detained. The planned coup is believed to have been funded by foreign countries and that the conspirators had close ties to terrorist groups.
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