Скриншот трансляции
Phones used by people around Alyaksandr Lukashenka are “under U.S. control.” He said he had been warned about this by Russian and Belarusian security services. Lukashenka shared the claim at the All-Belarusian People’s Assembly. He said he sees a solution in developing domestic software and preserving wired communications, which he believes cannot be intercepted.
“Quite recently, for the second time this year, Russian counterintelligence personally warned me that the phones of people who are close to the president — well, their children as well, someone in the cafeteria, not in the cafeteria, people nearby, closer — are under the control of the United States of America. Well, that’s natural. I could have guessed it myself, but once again they named surnames and phone numbers for me. And when I demanded from the State Security Committee and the Operational and Analytical Center what was going on, they added to this list as well.
The interest is enormous. And everything we don’t even talk about — here is the phone of Ihar Serheyenka, as a former security officer — and former ones don’t exist, right — it lies nearby, and if this interests someone there, it hears everything that is happening. I think Kiryl Zaleski, I’m not mistaken, I’m saying this correctly, that this is so. I was warned about this, and I became convinced of it. Therefore, we need to create… We can buy any phone. Maybe we don’t even need to spend money on that, but the software and the storage of all these conversations, let’s say, should be located here,” he said.
Lukashenka then used the example of McDonald’s to demonstrate how something foreign can be made Belarusian, once again repeating the story of how the American fast-food chain’s restaurants were transformed into Mak.by.
“And in this next five-year period we must make it so that people use this mobility, mobile communications, freely, without worrying that someone in Canada or America will read something and establish some kind of connection. Intelligence services are working,” Lukashenka ultimately returned to his main point.
He also spoke in favor of preserving wired telephone communications.
“I have it in my residence here in Minsk, I can use it, and I am convinced that not a single American will read what I say over these wires,” he said.
“Listen, let this remain as well. Why cut down these poles, as was once suggested to me, and destroy these wires? Even where they broke somewhere, they should be calmly restored — what if they are needed? This is security. Therefore, there is no need to destroy what has worked for us for years. It requires almost no money. Well, it doesn’t require big money. Let it be. God protects those who are cautious,” Lukashenka concluded.