KGB controls visa issuing process in Belarus?

Belarusian security services stand behind the problems with applying for a visa online.

This information appeared in Gazeta Wyborcza (Poland).

To apply for a visa, one needs to visit the special website, fill in an online application form and book an appointment in one of three consulates in Belarus (Brest, Hrodna or Minsk). It should be done at least a month before the date of travel.

The Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs is proud of the electronic visa application system and the fact that the number of issued visas has doubled in the last two years. Poland issued 350,000 visas last years.

There's the other side of the problem. The number of Belarusians wanting to get a Polish visa exceeds estimates of Polish diplomats, so the system doesn't work properly. A giant shadow zone appeared behind the online application website.

An ordinary person cannot pass the online registration, because all appointment dates are unavailable.

Professional programmer Aleh, 32, has been working with online registration for several months. He doesn't like when people call him a “hacker”.

“I do not hack servers of the Polish Minister of Foreign Affairs. I only have a fast internet connection and a necessary program,” he says.

He says he hasn't registered a single applicant for the last few days. He thinks a new powerful, yet unknown, player appeared in the market.

An anonymous source of the newspaper, the director of a travel firm in Hrodna, has no doubts: to be able to register such a large amount of visa applications, one needs to have ties in Beltelecom, the state-owned monopoly holding interconnection with foreign internet providers. He thinks the website is available only for “friendly” people and remains blocked for others. Last month, access from Belarus was blocked, while users from Poland could visit the website freely. Many went to Poland to submit online applications from there. This trick doesn't work this month.

Beltelecom's press service declined to comment on the situation.

“If a powerful player has appeared, it seems impossible that our security services don't notice it,” a former high-ranking officer of the Polish Interior Ministry says.

According to him, the internet and online visa application system in Belarus are under close control of the Interior Ministry, the KGB and the Operational and Analytical Centre under the aegis of Lukashenka.