Belarus Interior Minister Replaced As Lukashenka Tightens Grip On Country Amid Turmoil

MINSK — Belarusian Interior Minister Yury Karayeu has been replaced a day after he publicly said that security forces can use live munitions against demonstrators who have flooded the country’s streets for weeks of protests against a disputed election that gave strongman Alyaksandr Lukashenka a new six-year term as president.

State media reported on October 29 that Karayeu was replaced by Ivan Kubrakou, who, before his appointment to the post, led the Minsk city police department.

Karayeu was moved to the position of presidential aide in the western Hrodna region, while Deputy Interior Minister Alyaksandr Barsukou was made a presidential aide in Minsk and Valer Vakulchyk,, the former chief of the Belarusian KGB, became a presidential aide in the western region of Brest.

The shake-up and appointment of others close to Lukashenka in top security positions signals a tightening of the leader’s grip on security across the country, and especially in the capital, the epicenter of the protests and the place where the most violent police crackdowns have taken place.

Karayeu is already under EU sanctions for his role in the crackdown on protesters.

Local media quoted Lukashenka as saying that his aides’ responsibilities will be widened and their “task is to select cadres and control their activities.”

Belarus has witnessed near daily protests since the country’s August 9 presidential election that Lukashenka, in power since 1994, claims he won by a landslide.

Lukashenka has responded with a crackdown that has seen more than 10,000 arrests and credible accusations of torture and beatings of peaceful demonstrators by security forces. Media reporters covering the protests have also been attacked.

Most of the country’s opposition leaders have been arrested or forced to flee, including Svyatlana Tsikhanouskaya, whose supporters say was the rightful winner of the August 9 vote. She left Belarus for Lithuania days after the vote amid threats against herself and her family.

On October 28, Karayeu said law enforcement can use combat weapon against protesters, who are carrying out “sabotage or a terrorist attack” against police.

A day earlier, Lukashenka described ongoing strikes called by the opposition at the start of the week as “the actions of organized criminal groups.”

Lukashenka said the country was “starting to face terrorist threats,” in reference to weeks of peaceful protests against his rule.

Western governments have voiced support for the opposition, with both the European Union and the United States refusing to recognize Lukashenka as Belarus’s legitimate leader.

The EU has announced asset freezes and visa bans on 40 Belarusian officials for their alleged roles in the repression of protesters and the opposition, as well as fraud during the August vote.

And on October 12, EU foreign ministers gave a political green light to a new sanctions package that will include Lukashenka himself.