Lukashenko staged a show trial of an “agent of Russia” with an eye on the elections
A high-profile trial has begun in Belarus against the previously arrested Andrei Vtyurin, the former head of Alexander Lukashenko’s security service. In the case, in addition to Vtyurin, there are 15 more defendants, including other local officials and citizens of the Russian Federation, who are accused of receiving and giving record bribes - “kickbacks” for the supply of office equipment and software to government agencies. Vtyurin was credited in the press with close ties with the Russian Embassy; the trial that began can also be interpreted as a signal from Lukashenko to his subordinates on the eve of the presidential elections.
The Russian Nezavisimaya Gazeta writes about this.
“Andrey Vtyurin was born in Penza, graduated from the Saratov Higher Military School of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia. He ended up in Belarus with his military father. Lukashenko worked in security from 1995–2014. In 2007 he headed it. At that time, local media named him among the ten most influential Belarusian officials. The President awarded him the orders “For Impeccable Service” and “For Service to the Motherland.” They wrote about him that Kolya Lukashenko, the president’s youngest son, grew up in his arms. Andrei Vtyurin was detained at the end of April last year while receiving a bribe in the amount of $149 thousand from a representative of a Russian commercial structure “for assistance in promoting its interests in Belarus.”
At the time when information about the detention of Andrei Vtyurin appeared, Belarus and Russia had just begun to exchange mutual claims. The “troublemaker” Ambassador Mikhail Babich first appeared in Minsk and then disappeared at the request of the Belarusian authorities. Against this background, some local experts suggested that the detention of the deputy head of the Security Council is of a political nature,” the publication recalls.
“This has nothing to do with the fact that he was allegedly almost an agent of the Russian ambassador... There is absolutely nothing extraordinary here, the usual fight against corruption,” Lukashenko himself assured.
The trial of Vtyurin is part of Lukashenko’s strategy, which is to “keep officials at bay and get incriminating evidence at the right time,” the authors of the material believe.
“Alexander Lukashenko, who came to power 25 years ago in the wake of the fight against corruption, periodically uses the same weapon on the eve of his next re-election. Presidential elections in Belarus will take place in August this year,” the newspaper notes.
Lukashenko staged a show trial of a "Russian agent" with an eye on the elections.