Belarussian Foreign Ministry commented on records about plot to kill Sheremet
Anatoly Glaz, a spokesman for the Belarusian Foreign Ministry, said they had some "convincing testimonies" and audio recordings in Belarus in response to claims about Minsk plotting murder of journalist Pavel Sheremet which have been made by former Belarusian officer Igor Makar, as it is said on the website of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Belarus.
"In fact, this person (Igor Makar. - Ed. ) has been known to us since a long time, so we had some skepticism to watch all the fuss around his statements. We also noted the reaction of our Ukrainian colleagues, who almost decided to build up a whole new investigation based on this. At the same time, it is clear that this is only for political reasons, " Glaz said.
According to him, Makar allegedly contacted the Belarusian embassy in Lithuania for three times in the summer of 2020, and "all his intentions are absolutely evident taking into accout these appeals." He also added that their Ukrainian counterparts did not apply to them to "conduct an objective inspection."
“We have convincing evidence, including an audio recording that unequivocally demonstrates the obvious fraudulent intentions of this suit of clothes. In order to avoid saying something without adducing any proff, we are ready to make them public today. While listening to them, I suggest you to remember one of the quotes of this man: "... I’ve always been honest and decent," the spokesman said.
As IMI reported, Former second-in-command officer of the “Almaz” special forces unit of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Belarus, now a member of the civic project "Belarusian People's Tribunal" Igor Makar testified in the case of the murder of journalist Pavel Sheremet.
Igor Makar handed over a recording of a conversation in 2012 involving a person whose voice resembled the voice of the then chairman of the State Security Committee of Belarus Vadim Zaytsev to the Belgian publication EUobserver.
During the conversation with two interlocutors, the operation aiming to eliminate journalist Pavel Sheremet, Aleh Alkayev (former head of the G1 pre-trial detention center in Minsk), Volodymyr Borodach (former commander of the special brigade) and Vyacheslav Dudkin (former head of the anti-corruption department) is being discussed.
On January 4, 2021, the “Belarusian People's Tribunal”, EUobserver and “Ukraiynska Pravda” published recordings of the April 11, 2012 conversation, in which the voices were similar to those of the then KGB chief Vadym Zaitsev and employees of the counter-terrorist unit of the KGB "Alpha". More specifically, he was briefing members of the Alpha Group's Seventh Department, a clandestine task-force, which Zaitsev had created to target the regime's political enemies..
According to the data, Alexander Lukashenko allegedly allocated more than $ 1.5 million for such operations.
Speaking to Brussels edition, the NATO experts familiar with Zaytsev in Belarus confirmed the voices in audio recording could be Zaytsev’s one.
Since 2013, Zaytsev, the former head of the KGB, has headed Cosmos TV, a private television and Internet services company.
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