Polish and American intelligence are preparing a provocation in Poland, Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko said at a meeting with the senior staff of the national security agencies in Minsk on Feb. 16, published by the official BelTA News Service. Belarus will be holding elections on Feb. 25. “We publicize, as best as we can, all the information obtained by our intelligence about various kinds of provocations, extremist actions with the involvement of militants from Ukraine, Poland and Lithuania,” Lukashenko said. “Now we will continue this tradition. Here’s one more piece of operational information. I quote verbatim (this is important for the Poles): ‘Polish and U.S. intelligence are preparing a large-scale provocation against the Polish civilian population, which they will blame on Russia and Belarus,’” Lukashenko said, probably quoting from an intelligence report.
“Simultaneously Warsaw is trying to recruit high-ranking Belarusian officials to replace the current Belarusian opposition figures. They will look for and nurture new figures, loyal to the West and more effective. They will use all methods: from garden-variety bribery and blackmail to threats to the life and health of these people and their loved ones,” Lukashenko described.
He went on to explain “The Poles are happy: ‘The war in Ukraine is an opportunity to change the regime in Belarus.’ A chance for our self-exiled opposition. This is a quote,” he said.
