Belarus president says coup plotters allocated $10mn for his ‘assassination’

Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko says the coup plotters had allocated 10 million dollars for sending armed people to his residence in the countryside of the capital Minsk and assassinate him.

Lukashenko made the remarks in an interview with The Belarusian Telegraph Agency (BelTA), the country’s largest news agency, on Saturday, saying one million dollars of the money was supposed to be given to the sniper who was to shoot him dead, the TASS news agency reported.

“We have long seen that. Do you think we carried out this operation in Moscow out of the blue? We were keeping a close eye on them. They were expected to come to Minsk and conduct this operation,” the president added.

Lukashenko said the conspirators had drawn up at least three scenarios for his assassination, including shooting him dead at the May 9 parade and an attack on the presidential motorcade.

Under the third scenario, the Belarus leader told BelTA, armed people would have attacked the presidential residence in the countryside.

Earlier this month, Belarusian State Security Committee’s (KGB) Investigation Director Konstantin Bychek announced that a US-backed coup and assassination plot against Lukashenko had been thwarted in a joint effort by security services of Belarus and Russia.

Lukashenko won the August 9, 2020 presidential election. His main political opponent, Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, rejected the official results and alleged voter fraud, inciting protests against the incumbent president that plunged the country into months of unrest.

The United States and the European Union have repeated the allegation, rejecting Lukashenko’s re-election.

Lukashenko, who has been in power since 1994, has rejected the allegations of vote-rigging, accusing the West of inciting protests and conspiring to oust him.

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