Lukashenka dismissed Sukharenka for”demonizing” the West, didn’t he? :: Charter'97 :: News

Yesterday Alyaksandr Lukashenka changed the KGB authorities. Head of the security service Stsyapan Sukharenka was dismissed “due to receiving another appointment”. His new appointment has not been reported, yet. Stsyapan Sukharenka`s first deputy Vasil Dzemyantsey was also dismissed. The newly appointed KGB head is Yuri Zhadobin.

Former chief of the KGB 50-year-old Stsyapan Sukharenka had been at the head of the security service since 2005 thus having served at the state security bodies for 21 years. Before the 2006 presidential elections he announced that the opposition had been preparing the coup d’etat and promised to qualify the attempts of destabilizing the country as terrorism.

“Sukharenka’s dismissal looks logical .He fulfilled his task especially during the period of the presidential elections preparation” head of the Belarusian analytical center “Strategiya” Leanid Zayika told the Vremya Novostey. According to the expert’s opinion, the former chief of the KGB had demonized the West and opposition that could have interfered with the Mink’s intentions of improving its relations with the European Union.

However, independent Belarusian political scientist Alyaksandr Klaskousky in his talk with the Vremya Novostey remarked” Belarus has remained the only post-soviet country which security service continues to be named KGB. If Minsk wished to make a symbolic step forward towards the
West it could have changed that sign”.

This Sunday the Belarusian TV broadcasted the sensational news story running about discovering of the polish espionage network in January. Leanid Zayika didn’t exclude that this information action was an unsuccessful attempt of proving the importance of their work”.

Photo: Newly appointed KGB head Yuri Zhadobin