July 24, Pozirk. Belarus’ foreign ministry has identified the Belarusian allegedly plotting a “terrorist attack” in Poland as an “adherent of pseudo-Christian values” who was targeting the underage children of a Belarusian woman leading an “extremist organization.”
In a message on the ministry’s website, spokesman Rusłan Varankoŭ says that Poland is paying “due attention” to Minsk’s warning about the imminent “attack” and will undoubtedly “take exhaustive measures to prevent a tragedy.”
Varankoŭ stresses that cooperation in the fight against terrorism should be “completely free from politics” and claims that Minsk acts in the spirit of “good neighborliness” despite “differences of opinion” with Warsaw.
Varankoŭ says that “fugitive” groups would put the blame on Belarusian authorities if the planned attack took place and describes the “radicalization” of exiled Belarusians as a “trend” that is becoming a security threat for the Polish people.
Varankoŭ emphasises the “utmost gravity of the situation,” alleging that the would-be attacker has “motives and connections” and a track record of “radical acts” as a resident of Belarus.
“According to available data, the woman whose minor children were to become the main target of the planned crime leads one of the organizations designated as extremist in Belarus,” Varankoŭ says. “This fact clearly illustrates the deep crisis and unhealthy competition within the community of so-called political emigration artificially supported by Europe.”
Varankoŭ goes on to describe the alleged plot as “a predictable reaction” to the abuses of groups advancing a “populist” agenda and seeking to “enrich themselves.”
Although the foreign ministry left all the individuals in its account anonymous, Belarusian opposition leader Śviatłana Cichanoŭskaja, a mother of two who chairs the United Transitional Cabinet, seems a perfect fit for the ministry’s description of the “victim.”
The foreign ministry reported on Thursday evening that Belarus had informed Poland about preparations for a terrorist attack on the underage children of a “female activist residing in Poland who holds Belarusian citizenship.”
Information obtained “through Belarusian law-enforcement channels regarding the preparation of a terrorist act” in Poland was passed to Poland’s Chargé d’Affaires Krzysztof Ożanna in accordance with agreements on cooperation in combating crime, the ministry said.
The person plotting the attack is a resident of Poland who was convicted in Belarus under several articles of the Criminal Code and who has recently been deprived by the Polish authorities of additional protection and the right to reside in the country, the report said.
The individual in question allegedly wanted was to take revenge on the woman for “insufficient efforts to preserve the above-mentioned status for the said person in Poland.”
Krzysztof Ożanna was reportedly told that “additional information on this matter, if necessary and as it becomes available, will be transmitted through the channels of interaction between the competent authorities of the two countries.”
On July 24, Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski said that Warsaw “takes every terrorism warning seriously.” Rmf24.pl quoted Sikorski as saying that Polish authorities are checking the information from Minsk.
