The present Belarusian regime simply needs regular shake-ups of its structures. The goal is to prevent the creation of informal connections and groups within the system.
Lukashenka doesn’t fully trust KGB. The previous heads of KGB – Matskevich, Yeryn, and now Sukharenka, have fallen out of grace and were sacked by the president.
The personal security service of the president has become the major personnel forge for the government. (Yury Zhadobin, the newly appointed Head of KGB, used to be the chief of the security service). The regime relies on force as well as on the persons, which have proven that they can be trusted.
The system of power in Belarus is far from being stable. Human resource management is not the strongest side of the regime. The successful appointments are just as numerous, as the failures.
Different top brass power structures (Interior Ministry, KGB, control services, etc.) are fighting for the control over property. They are not ashamed to use the most dubious methods. This means that the “power ministers” (those wearing uniforms with shoulder straps) believe that the transition to the bureaucratic capitalism (such as in Russia or in Kazakhstan) is inevitable. Lukashenka uses this to divide and rule, but he is also worried that this rivalry makes the regime less effective.
Lukashenka: “You are cattlemen, not security officers”.
Belarusian Top Brass (photo by Julia Darashkevich).
“If it is normal to use politic manipulations, then the economic manipulations should be allowed as well” – this is the logic of the officials. The bacillus of the former provoke the latter.
If anything like this can happen to the Head of the State Control Committee, what do usual Belarusian citizens have to expect? (Zyanon Lomats, Head of the State Control Committee, was attacked by people, who are most likely linked to KGB).
Both Sukharenka (after his dismissal) and Zhadobin (after his appointment) gave their first interviews to the opposition press.
Lukashenka washed the regime’s dirty linen in public on purpose. He obviously wanted to discredit KGB as such. Meanwhile, KGB is the important part of the Soviet heritage... If Lukashenka finally decided to rename KGB into something else, the West would appreciate this as an important signal.
