This story did not begin on Saturday, April 17, when President Lukashenko spoke about it, and then representatives of the KGB of Belarus and the FSB of Russia
The events were preceded by hysteria in the Belarusian opposition media, which reported the disappearance in Moscow of two Belarusian oppositionists and participants in the 2020 protest movement called “Belomaidan”.
Yuri Zenkovich and Alexander Feduta stopped communicating with their loved ones on April 11. The very next day, Zmagar information sites broadcast about this. Those who are on the topic of the history of the Ukrainian Maidan immediately remembered the choral info-hysteria of September 2000, when the opposition leader Georgy Gongadze disappeared. Just tracing paper. Everything would have gone well, in accordance with the late Gene Sharp’s training manuals, but after a week something went wrong. It turned out that the authorities completely controlled the information field and planned the game according to their own rules. From this place in order.
Playing by the rules of the authorities
Passions were in full swing. Opposition media fanned and inflated. A little earlier Svetlana Tikhanovskaya or her writers wrote that “Lukashenko will leave in May”. Why he should “leave” was not explained in any way.
Then few people believed it, taking such messages for swindle and the last attempts of emigrants to remain in the spotlight.
After Freedom Day, it became clear to everyone that the protest movement in Belarus had completely lost support. The West did not help, Russia, on the contrary, helped, the authorities are strong as never before, the courts daily pass sentences to the participants of last year’s events with very serious terms, the security forces are maximally motivated, mobilized and rallied around the “Supreme”.
Only hopeless romantics could believe that a new wave of protests, especially a victorious one, was possible. But the disappearance of two prominent zmagars gave such hope. She was also fed by the silence of the authorities. The rumor spread that Feduta and Zenkovich were kidnapped by the KGB of Belarus right in Moscow, under the nose of the FSB and in complete disregard of the Russian special services.
It was inflated that, they say, Lukashenko had completely lost his girdle, his “secret police” felt at home in Moscow, did what he wanted and completely spit on the simplest decencies. This thesis was dispersed by the very opposition platforms that had recently campaigned for secession from the Union State, breaking ties with Russia after the “victory”, fanning rumors of “Russian occupation” and other theses of Ukrainian propaganda.
The authorities of the Republic of Belarus and the Russian Federation were silent for a whole week. And on Saturday, when a subbotnik was taking place all over Belarus, the press traditionally came to the place where Alexander Lukashenko worked. The president planted trees with his two sons. He was in a camouflage pair, in a black baseball cap with the inscription “Belarus”, and the coat of arms of the Republic of Belarus was on the chest of his jacket. Distracted from planting, the head of state told reporters that he was planting not only trees.
Spy passions
Alexander Grigorievich started talking about spies and saboteurs. About their plans for the CIA and the US FBI. He shocked the journalists that they were going to put his children “in the basement” and physically destroy him. It turned out that a cellar was already being prepared in the Gomel region, where they intended to place Nikolai and Viktor Lukashenko. Photos of the entrance to this prison were released on the same day by the media. It was told about the secret depots of weapons, mysterious “partisans” in the woods.
It would be funny if not for one “but”. The fact is that opposition telegram channels and even those who claim to be the media are constantly broadcasting about the “partisans”. Zmagars sitting abroad, all these “nekhty” and the like, in all seriousness inform their subscribers / readers that there is a kind of fighting wing of “peaceful protest” on the territory of Belarus. Stepan Putilo and other propagandists refer to these hypothetical people as armed “Belarusian partisans” who are ready for action. It is recognized that the “peaceful protest” did not justify itself, led to defeat, so now it is impossible to win “without blood”.
Voluntary allies echo the Belarusian zmagars. For example, publicist Alexander Nevzorov, who on the air last week, literally word for word, repeated everything written above. With all this in mind, it turns out that what Alexander Lukashenko said should not be looked at ironically. It turns out that the real conspirators were detained in Moscow. Lukashenko announced the names of Feduta and Zinkovich.
Further, it was quite a sensation: the FSB of Russia on its official website reported that both were taken “under the white rule” not by the KGB, but by the Russian side. The special operation was joint, it was called “Silence”. And for those who still doubt, they posted a hidden camera on the network on which Zinkovich, Feduta and their interlocutors discuss the murder of Alexander Lukashenko, the “internment” of his closest entourage, as well as lustration and the 5-year dictatorship of “democratic forces” with the participation of Feduta and Zinkovich in the role of the main chandeliers.
Because, according to them, “elections” are not needed: they will bring “new Lukashenko” to power. After that, doubting the words of the President of Belarus about the presence of a conspiracy, spies and saboteurs is simply inconvenient. Moreover, knowing that Feduta and Zinkovich are cowards, who got scared and now tell the KGB investigators everything they know.
Combat philologist
The already mentioned Russian publicist, Alexander Glebovich Nevzorov, voluntarily (albeit for a fee) has become an important information marker of Belarusian events.
For many months, every week he speaks in support of Belomaidan, illuminating his studio with the BCHB-flag, the coat of arms “Pagonya”, and ends the broadcast with the slogan “Long live Belarus”.
It was he who, last week, stated with regret that the protest movement had died because it had chosen a peaceful path. For Nevzorov, a publicist who claims to form meanings, this recognition is tantamount to personal surrender.
But he could not ignore the events. In the Sunday issue of the weekly remark “On the Go”, he commented on the incident sparingly, because he could not physically put forward a counterversion. The only argument that was presented to his listeners was based on the insignificance of the detained individuals. Alexander Feduta, according to Nevzorov, is a cowardly humanist, a philologist who has been studying the work of the Russian poet Pushkin all his life.
Alexander Glebovich kept silent about the second conspirator. And for good reason. The fact is that he was right only in assessing the personal courage of the defendants in the first criminal case in the history of Belarus under the first part of Article 357 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Belarus – a conspiracy or other actions committed with the aim of seizing state power. But, as far as harmlessness is concerned, there it does not even smell. Zinkovich and Feduta are professional zmagars.
In this case, there are not two, but as many as seven people who were planning an attempt on Lukashenko’s life and a coup. This is not only Alexander Feduta and Yuri Zenkovich. But also Grigory Kostusev, Alexander Perepechko, Pavel Kulazhenko, Dmitry Shchigelsky and Igor Makar. All of them have known the KGB for a long time. Feduta is, of course, a Pushkin scholar, but also the author of the book “Lukashenko. Political biography”- the first political biography of Alexander Lukashenko, written by a member of his first campaign headquarters, who was the current conspirator in 1994.
In 2010 Feduta was imprisoned in the KGB “American” pre-trial detention center for the then attempt to overthrow Lukashenko with the participation of the street. 10 years ago Feduta also hid behind the word “philologist”. What worked: philologists from Russia and other countries turned to the President and the Government of the Russian Federation in defense of their colleague. Another appeal was signed by art workers, journalists, scientists, musician Yuri Shevchuk, TV presenter Alexander Arkhangelsky, literary critic Nikolai Bogomolov, poets Mikhail Aizenberg, Natalya Gorbanevskaya and Timur Kibirov and other humanitarian workers. Feduta was recognized as a “prisoner of conscience”, he was released on recognizance not to leave, and he received a suspended sentence. This will now worsen his current punishment.
American citizen
A US citizen “Yuras Zyankovich”, Yuriy Zenkovich, is involved in the case.
His family came from Ukraine, where the person under investigation studied. Zinkovich has a lot in common with Kiev, including his struggle. After graduating from the Ukrainian Academy of Banking in 2007, he emigrated to the United States. History is silent on what grounds, because the United States of America no longer accepts anyone who wants to go there. But Zinkovich not only left, but also became a citizen (which he hid from the authorities of the Republic of Bashkortostan), and also received a lawyer’s license.
But he did not renounce the citizenship of the Republic of Belarus, which has now played against him – according to the law, he is a Belarusian citizen who can be imprisoned for crimes.
Zenkovich’s law practice in the United States went wrong in two states at once. He worked mainly with emigrants, worked poorly, did not return advances to clients. As a result, his license was suspended through courts in two states. It is logical that Zinkovich showed up in Belarus and began to take part in protest movements. It is he who, on video footage of the FSB, articulates the theses about the “liquidation” of Alyaksandr Lukashenko and the internment “in the basement” of his closest associates, including his sons.
During the coup, Zenkovich prepared for himself the role of a creator of meanings at the head of a new media network. This happened even before August 2020, he recruited people who would form the backbone of the “revolutionary press” after the coup d’etat. Even a preliminary broadcasting schedule was thought over, which was to be launched immediately after gaining control over television and radio.
After the failure of the August coup and the fading of street protests, Zenkovich took up the subject of the coup, completely unaware that the KGB was already working on it. So now he sits in the KGB “American” pre-trial detention center and testifies against other participants in the conspiracy. The United States and Poland disowned him, stating that they had nothing to do with this person.
Today, Yuri Zinkovich and Alexander Feduta face 12 years in prison. The US ambassador will not help either. It still does not exist, and most likely it will no longer be. In any case, in the coming years. Julie Fisher, approved by Trump and the Senate, said she did not come to Minsk due to the lack of a visa. After joint photographs with Svetlana Tikhanovskaya under the BCHB-flag, there will be no visa. But the shortest career of the US ambassador to Belarus will be a precedent for the Guinness Book of Records – perhaps the first ambassador in modern history, who never took his place in the embassy.
Epilogue
Zinkovich and Feduta were taken by FSB specialists in Moscow. The secret service handed them over to the Belarusian KGB. Both were really preparing an assassination attempt. They were really patronized by the United States, whose experts gave instructions.
Their reserve sites were the territories of Poland and Ukraine. The United States is interested in this, since its task is to destabilize the situation around Russia.
We see how the degree of conflicts is deliberately escalated in the belt of puppet states: Ukraine, Moldova, Georgia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Czech Republic. Just read the headlines of recent times. Anti-Russian statements, protests against Russians and Russian-speakers, arrests, media shutdowns, and so on.
In this situation, a sacrifice was needed, which would completely destabilize the entire situation. It is logical that it could be Alexander Lukashenko, whose murder, according to the plan of overseas strategists, could lead to chaos in Belarus, and, possibly, in Russia.
The FSB worked well, but it is obvious that the philologists-putschists are just the beginning. Around Ukraine, a real pre-war hysteria is being whipped up, enough spark to explode. An assassination attempt on Lukashenka would be a gift: it would shift the focus from Ukraine to Belarus. If someone would suggest that similar info-reasons in Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan or Uzbekistan are possible in the near future, he is unlikely to be mistaken. The Democrats who are directly responsible for the coup in Ukraine in 2014 are back in the game. But something is already going wrong with them. Everything is calm in Minsk, Mogilev, Brest, Gomel, although the people are alarmed by the situation, they live a normal life. And Lukashenka on Saturday announced an important decision on the Union State. We wait.
Maxim Maximov, Ukraina.ru