Lukashenka mistrusts the Interior Ministry

Lukashenka’s security service colonel is a new official at the Interior Ministry.

Personnel issues were decided at Lukashenka’s office on Tuesday. The observers were most interested in the HR news from the KGB. But the main HR-decision made by Lukashenka in the interior forces sphere has gone unnoticed, blogger d_zholik writes.

The decision on appointing Vadzim Siniauski as the new head of the key department of the Interior Ministry, the Security Department, was announced modestly. But this decision changes the entire picture of the largest force authority in Belarus.

It is Vadzim Siniauski, the acting colonel of the Presidential Security Service, who will become one of the chiefs of the Interior Ministry.

His present position was not widely discussed by the official sources deliberately, and his biography became a secret matter. But the blogger managed to uncover the high official of Lukashenka’s secret service, and collect certain data on him.

And this is why it is even more interesting to understand Lukashenka’s HR-move . In January 2012, Lukashenka appointed colonel Igar Shunievich as the first vice Minister of the Interior Affairs and a head police official. Until then, Igar Shunievich had worked first in the investigation department of the Minsk regional interior department together with Siniauski, and then in the KGB central office.

Numerous observers and analysts insist that Lukashenka is afraid of “a conspiracy in the interior ministry” and is trying to control the Interior Ministry by the KGB whom he trusts more, since the KGB is headed by his son Viktar and his friend.

But the new recruitment decision is even more stunning. This is the first candidate from the Presidential Security Service.

A person from the Presidential Security Service is recruited to the most advanced department of the Interior Ministry system. All over the country there are several thousand employees, hundreds of service cars; hundreds of armed patrol scrutinize all regional and district centers and the capital 24 hours per day. In each region and district of the country there are independent watch services, communications, and canine training centers. An independent system not connected to the district, regional or republican police. They have an independent HR departments and an educational center near Minsk. They own buildings, arsenals and weapon storages.

This is also very important. The Interior Ministry Security Department is the most prosperous institution of the Ministry. They have huge monthly monetary flows outside the budget, bank accounts, excellent profitability, nearly entire self-sufficiency.

A system in a system.

A natural question: why did Lukashenka appointed a man who has nothing to do with this sphere as the head of the department? Why not an internal candidate?

Maybe he is splitting influence-centers in the Interior Ministry?

In the Ministry, the key departments are staffed by people from the special services, while the actual police officials are guided by what their “co-workers” from the KGB and Presidential Security Service say. Kuliashou’s Ministry cannot act independently; it can cost them their freedom or even life. But why would Lukashenka be so concerned with the Interior Ministry? Is he afraid of a revolt?