Security officials indoctrinating students, fearing unrest during elections

February 22, Pozirk. As early voting continues in Belarus’ parliamentary and local elections, top security officials have been visiting education establishments with lectures laced with anti-Western and anti-opposition rhetoric.

Sanctions by the United States and its allies are designed to “strangle Belarus, capture sales markets and line their pockets, selling their products,” Alaksandar Valfovič, state secretary of the Security Council, told teachers and students at Civil Protection University of the Ministry of Emergency Management in Minsk on February 21.

“The world is on the edge today,” SB. Belarus Segodnya quoted him as saying. He accused the West of demonizing Belarus’ as an axis of evil “using visa restrictions, border closures and creating a collapse at transport checkpoints.”

“When these levers do not work, they resort to military pressure, the demonstration of military equipment, military force, increased budget spending on military purposes and armed forces expansion,” he charged.

Interior Minister Ivan Kurbakoŭ on the same day reminded Belarusian State University students of “measures taken by the government to counter extremism,” the ministry’s press office reported.

Juryj Nazaranka, the first deputy interior minister, lectured students on “modern phenomena such as extremism and terrorism and their influence on youth” at the Maksim Tank Belarusian State Teachers’ Training University, reported Na Strazhe and Militsiya Belarusi, periodicals run by the interior ministry.

Meanwhile, Prosecutor General Andrej Švied on February 22 gave a lecture to Belarusian State University students on “genocide against the Belarusian people” during World War II, the agency’s Telegram channel reported.

He claimed that “a large wing of neo-Nazis” acted on the streets during the 2020 postelection protests, which he described as an attempted coup. He used his speech to identify peaceful protesters with Nazis and equate political opposition with extremism and terrorism.

He said that prosecutors suspect more than 100 people of “rehabilitating Nazism,” a charges routinely used by authorities to silence critics.

“The medieval fight for territories and resources continues,” Švied said. “The successors of Nazis obsessed with the idea of retaliation” follow the footsteps of Crusaders, he said.

Security forces are on standby as early voting is under way in Belarus’ parliamentary and local elections.

Belarus has not held a single free and fair election since 1996, according to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).

This year, the Alaskandar Łukašenka government decided against inviting OSCE observers.

Not a single opposition candidate has been registered for the contests, and there are no members of the opposition on election commissions.