"The Biggest Fear of the Regime Is the Workers Rattling Their Helmets on the Tiles near the Government House"

The hijacking of the plane brought Lukashenka's death closer.

Former Lukashenka's administration official Artsiom Praskalovich, who left office and joined the democratic forces, spoke about the main fear of the regime in an interview with kyky.org:

- The biggest fear of Lukashenka and his officials is the workers rattling their helmets on the tiles near the Government House. Some of the Belarusians have never lived by this principle, some have abandoned it in August 2020, but, probably, there were still people who adhered to this philosophy. Who lived with the attitude “it doesn't concern me.” Now, this concerns everyone, and conclusions must be drawn. The main thing is to understand that world airports were closed for Belarus, not because of the "zmahary" ["fighters" in Belarusian] or the "decaying West," but because of the reckless actions of the person who usurped power.

I think every mistake made by the "authorities" somehow changes something. Of course, this person will not become weaker to hold on to his chair, will not make concessions due to the closing of the sky. But economic losses will follow, which will create a new round of discontent. Answering your question, I cannot say that the situation with the hijacking of the plane drastically knocked down the regime, but, in the medium term, it was one of the decisions that brought its death closer.

The ex-official also spoke about the mood of his colleagues:

- Returning to my ex-colleagues: today we are witnessing a wave of layoffs from government agencies - people are en masse removed from their posts because they signed up for the "wrong" candidates last summer. Plus, many of those working in the system practice the Italian strike. To be honest, I wouldn't be surprised if “our” people landed the plane. A lot of actions that are performed to the detriment of the regime suggest the thought: maybe all this is happening for a reason?