2023-08-09 04:32:00
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The Wagner private army worries not only Poland, but also the Belarusian population. Opposition politician Pavel Latuschka tells fr.de how Prigozhin’s mercenaries get around.
Munich/Tsel/Minsk – He kept it under the autocrats Alexander Lukashenko in Belarus no more. Pawel Latuschka, former Minister of Culture of Belarus (2009 to 2012), went into exile in Warsaw and from there belongs to the Belarusian opposition. He is considered a harsh critic of the current government.
By the grace of Alexander Lukashenko: Wagner mercenaries are likely to be found in Belarus
said Lukashenko recently had neighbor Poland with the Wagner mercenaries threatened after the failed Uprising of Yevgeny Prigozhin in Russia thousands moved to a camp about 100 kilometers south-east of Minsk. In an interview with fr.de von IPPEN.MEDIA Latuschka now tells how Prigozhin’s private army allegedly misbehaves in Belarus.
“Our Belarusian sources tell us that the Wagner mercenaries are walking around in shops with weapons and, forgive the choice of words, molesting Belarusian girls,” says the 50-year-old, explaining about his homeland: “The Belarusians are okay with it Ukraine war critical of. The absolute majority of Belarusians, unlike Russian society, are against the war. The absolute majority of Belarusians are against Lukashenko.”
Belarus ruler Alexander Lukashenko: Doesn’t he have the Wagner mercenaries in his country under control? © IMAGO / ITAR-TASS
Where did Latuschka get his information from? How does the former minister gather his impressions? First and foremost, Latushka is deputy head of the Belarusian interim cabinet, which was set up in opposition by allegedly disregarded 2020 presidential candidate Svyatlana Tsikhanouskaya. As head of the political team of the so-called National Crisis Management, he says he has numerous sources of information both in the state administration and within civil society, even from exile. In addition, he and his team use sociological services that, as far as possible in an “autocracy” (Latuschka), would conduct sociological research in the country.
Wagner mercenaries from Russia: Are they causing instability and uncertainty in Belarus?
According to him, “the Belarusians are critical of the arrival of the Wagner mercenaries and the risks to public security. How is this confirmed? This is confirmed by the fact that Lukashenko is practically forced to constantly explain to Belarusians at every public speech why the Wagner group is in our country,” says Latuschka. Lukashenko’s security apparatus also sees no support in the Wagner mercenaries, but rather “a problem, a challenge for the security of society”. Lukashenko is thus “between two conflicts”.
We hear statements that 15,000 Wagner mercenaries are to be recalled from vacation and could also be taken to Belarus.
According to opposition estimates, there are currently up to six thousand Wagner mercenaries in Belarus, explains the opposition politician fr.de von IPPEN.MEDIA, most of them in the village of Tsel, as well as, not far from it, in military camps near Osipovichi. There are also satellite images of these camps. Most recently, however, there was international speculation about the actual number of fighters. “We hear statements that 15,000 Wagner mercenaries are to be recalled from vacation and could also be taken to Belarus,” says a confidante of opposition leader Tsikhanouskaya.
Wagner mercenaries in Belarus: target practice on the borders with Poland and Ukraine
Furthermore, the opposition had been informed, he explains, “that exercises were taking place at a shooting range near Brest and about 100 Wagner mercenaries were directed towards Suwalki Corridor towards the border with Poland and Lithuania were on the way”. Delicate: The described training ground of the Belarusian army near Brest is located in the border triangle Poland and the Ukraine. Latuschka: “The task (from the Moscow Kremlin for Lukashenko, note d. editor), placing the Wagner mercenaries in different locations is intended to create the risk of destabilizing the borders with both Ukraine and NATO member states.”
Fled into exile from Alexander Lukashenko: the Belarusian opposition politician Pavel Latuschka. © Latuschka
Alexander Lukashenko: Wagner calculus because of dependence on Vladimir Putin?
He thinks that the reason for the presence of the Wagner mercenaries was primarily “Lukashenko’s desire to avoid a catastrophe for himself, which would inevitably have happened in Belarus if Prigozhin had reached Moscow,” says Latushka: “After all, Putin and Lukashenko in the same boat. And a hole in that boat means that the boat will sink along with its two passengers – Putin and Lukashenko. While rescuing Putin, he saved himself by inviting the Wagner mercenaries to Belarus.” (pm)
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