- On Monday, the news site EUobserver published an audio file of a 2012 conversation in which the then KGB leader in Belarus could be heard planning the assassination of dissidents in Germany.
- Vadim Zaitsev could be heard planning the murders while citing pressure from Alexander Lukashenko, who was the president of Belarus at the time and remains.
- “It is important to me that no one thinks about the KGB … How to start a casual explosion, how to start an arson and leave no trace, murder and the like – that is not clear,” Zaitsev was heard saying.
- Three dissidents mentioned in Zaitsev’s recording were not previously seen as targets.
- A Dutch intelligence official told Insider that the US was likely to have this recording already and passed it on to Germany, which then avoided the attacks.
- Zaitsev was also heard talking about the death of a fourth dissident, journalist Pavel Sheremet, who later died in a car bomb in Ukraine in 2016.
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A leaked audio tape of the then Belarusian KGB chief planning the murder of three Belarusian dissidents in Germany on the order of President Alexander Lukashenko, recorded eight years ago, bothered European diplomats and intelligence agents.
The recording, obtained this week from the news site EUobserver, appeared to show Vadim Zaitsev demanding updates on operations to assassinate three dissident targets in Germany, while citing pressure from Lukashenko.
Zaitsev was at the time the leader of the Belarusian intelligence service, which is still known for its retro-Soviet era KGB designation. Lukashenko has been the president of Belarus since 1994.
The EUobserver said it obtained the recording and another leaked file from 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 specialized agents in the KGB special operations division, known as the Alpha Group, according to the EUobserver.
‘It’s important to me that no one thinks about the KGB’
According to the EUobserver, the April 11, 2012 meeting included a discussion of planned murders for three Belarusian dissidents living in Germany – Oleg Alkaev, Vladimir Borodach and Vyacheslav Dudkin – who had been members of the country’s military or intelligence services. before defecting.
“It is important to me that no one thinks about the KGB,” said Zaitsev of the planned European successes, according to the EUobserver’s translation of the audio recording.
“It’s clear how we can drown or shoot someone. Of course. But how to start a casual explosion, how to start an arson and leave no trace, murder and the like – that’s not clear,” he said.
You can read the English audio transcript of the EUobserver here.
Lukashenko carrying a gun and using combat equipment on Belarusian state TV. Belarusian state TV
None of the three dissidents was previously known to have been the target. All three are alive.
A Dutch intelligence official told Insider that Germany is likely to have knowledge of the information about the Belarusian plot, which possibly prevented further action.
The official asked not to be identified because he is not authorized to speak to the press, but his identity is known to the Insider.
“If a news site has a transcript from the head of the [Belarusian] I think it is safe to say that the Americans are ordering murders, “said the official, who described the audio file as reliable but did not provide additional information.
“Americans are obliged to pass on information about the possible death of almost anyone, much less to one of their closest allies in Germany,” he said hypothetically, although he declined to give details.
A future death has been described graphically and accurately
According to the EUobserver, the 2012 meeting also focused on the murder of Pavel Sheremet, a Belarusian dissident journalist who lived in Russia at the time.
Sheremet died in a car bomb explosion in Kiev in 2016, but the 2012 discussion of his death, according to the EUobserver, was graphic and almost exactly how he ended up dying.
Without giving details, a Dutch official said that Lukashenko’s responsibility for the Sheremet murder was established long ago, at least by the intelligence services.
Investigators inspect a damaged car at the site where journalist Pavel Sheremet was killed by a car bomb in central Kiev, Ukraine, on July 20, 2016. Valentyn Ogirenko / Reuters
After first insisting that the three traitors based in Germany should mysteriously die unrelated to Belarus, apparently because of concerns about angering the Germans, Zaitsev said in the recording that Sheremet’s death should be made public, macabre and obviously the result of Belarusian intelligence for an increased deterrence factor.
“Let’s plant [a bomb] and so on, and this damn rat will be knocked to pieces – legs in one direction, arms in the other, “said Zaitsev, according to the EUobserver.” If everything [looks like] natural causes, it will not enter people’s minds in the same way. “
Zaitsev also ordered Sheremet to be placed under close KGB surveillance, according to the EUobserver. Reports of these operations were leaked along with the audio file for the news agency, which you can read here.
According to Reuters, Ukrainian police issued a statement on Monday – the same day the EUobserver published Zaidev’s recording – saying it would examine documents and audio recordings from 2012 in its investigation into the Sheremet murder.
The revelations are likely to further isolate Lukashenko, who remains politically and diplomatically isolated from the EU after the deeply criticized presidential election last year.
Opposition forces say Lukashenko stole the election, sparking months of widespread demonstrations across Belarus.