TV reports about smuggled cash destined for Skrebets absurd and ridiculous, opposition politicians say :: Charter'97 :: News

Opposition politicians dismissed as absurd and ridiculous Sunday’s TV reports about $200,000 in cash allegedly smuggled from Lithuania to Belarus for financing political activities of ex-MP Sergei Skrebets.

Apart from reporting about the shipment allegedly intercepted by law enforcement agencies, the host of an analytical show broadcast by the First National Channel also likened the opposition to “a conglomerate of small mafias” and the process of selecting a single pro-democracy candidate in the 2006 presidential election to “a criminal showdown.”

“If this $200,000 was really seized from someone, it should be spent on pay to new, more talented propagandists, because what BT [Belarusian Television] is doing with regard to the opposition is a vivid example of incompetence,” Anatoly Lebedko, leader of the United Civic Party, told BelaPAN.

The politician described the TV reports as the government’s response to the efforts by pro-democracy forces to consolidate ahead of the presidential vote.

“Such accusations are beyond common sense and [the authors of the reports] should contact psychiatrists. In my opinion, fear and uncertainty in connection with the uprisings in Georgia, Ukraine and Kyrgyzstan are likely behind these reports,” Mr. Lebedko said.

Social democratic politician Vladimir Nistyuk dismissed the reports as laughable. “Sergei Skrebets is not so great a politician in order to have his political activities financed. As far as I know he does not plan to run for president,” he told BelaPAN.

“I know that someone gets funds from some sources, but being a rather prominent figure in the pro-democracy movement, I have never seen bags of cash,” he went on to say.

Another opposition politician, Aleksei Korol, said that the reports were part of the smear campaign targeting the country’s pro-democracy forces. “Of course, the reports are far-fetched and I would hardly believe that anyone may use couriers to deliver such amounts to the opposition. One has to be an idiot to do this,” he said, predicting that government-controlled channels would soon liken opposition politicians to terrorists.