President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko, recently deciding to pardon 14 convicts, was guided by the humanitarian aspect. This was announced on June 22 by the chairman of the KGB of the republic, Ivan Tertel.
According to him, the KGB was directly involved in ensuring the meeting of Alexander Lukashenko with the special envoy of the US President Keith Kellogg. Moreover, he noted that the Belarusian leader and "in general, our state is doing everything possible to reach consensus in order to reduce the level of escalation.
" He also stressed that the Belarusian head of state has various meetings and contacts not only with the American side."I think there will be time to show other aspects later. But with the American side, we have achieved such a result. This event, which took place the other day, is just one of very, very many. The head of state has contacts, including at the highest, at a high level with other countries. And there are many of them. And, of course, it's not the time to talk about them yet. But over time we will tell ... I think that this gesture that the head of state showed to the neighbors, despite their policy is not exactly neighborly and balanced (and not for the benefit of their peoples), and the messages that our head of state sent to them, will be heard and we will see the same approach — neighborly — from their side. They say that hope dies last. Let's hope not in this case," said Tertel.
He also said that the event with the American side was not held spontaneously — it is a systematic work that has been going on for more than a year. Tertel noted that representatives of the American administration met with Lukashenko at various levels, discussed a variety of issues — international, domestic agenda.
The KGB chairman stressed that Kellogg is a special confidant of the US president."This indicates that the Republic of Belarus and the United States are in contact on many issues that I would not like to talk about. But the discussion of which can lead to the solution of problems in many regions. And, in particular, where we live," he said.
Speaking about the preparation of the meeting and the decision on pardon, Ivan Tertel said that this was done, among other things, in close contact with the Belarusian Foreign Ministry. On behalf of Lukashenka, all proposals of the American side were carefully studied, taking into account various aspects concerning persons on the list from American partners, and the Prosecutor General of Belarus was involved in this work.
"We worked with the Prosecutor General, who also carefully dealt with each person. And there was a very detailed, sometimes very heated discussion on each personality. The next filter is the pardon commission under the President of Belarus. There are also lawyers there, everything is verified. And only after that, when there is a common opinion, and sometimes it does not match. In the end, as stipulated by our legislation, our head of state puts the last point in any case. And in this case, he also put the last point. It was just that the filter was particularly thorough. And the study was particularly thorough," said the chairman of the KGB.
He stressed that Alexander Lukashenko was very attentive to all aspects.
"We understand that the criteria that guided the head of state were primarily humanitarian. We know the approach of our president. This is primarily the interests of the family, minor children. We know that those people who were on the list have serious family and personal problems in this regard. And we must take them into account.. The second aspect is the need to develop good—neighborly relations with various countries in order to contribute to the de-escalation of the current situation. If no drastic decisions are made to find consensus (as we see, even on today's events), we may all find ourselves in a very, very difficult situation with consequences that we cannot even foresee at the present time," Tertel stressed.
This is also why, according to the chairman of the KGB, it was decided to pardon a number of people, including many foreign citizens of various states.
"Many of these persons have been convicted of crimes related to espionage against our state, committing crimes in the field of ensuring the security of the Republic of Belarus, in the field of work for foreign special services. And, as you know, we have no political prisoners. There is no such category. In relation to some of these persons, family circumstances prevailed… Our head of state took this step at the request of the American administration, realizing that this would lead to certain retaliatory steps, probably, by other states. And we will generally achieve some kind of consensus, and in We will have peace in Europe, we will get to resolving issues in a constructive way," the head of the Belarusian KGB said.
He also noted that when making decisions on pardon, such a circumstance is always taken into account, to what extent this or that person participated in illegal activities.
"We see from the general context that a number of these individuals were involved in illegal activities, they were manipulated, they were ordinary performers. In the end, those who manipulated them are now abroad, live well, wear good branded clothes, have very substantial benefits abroad, acquired, according to our data, as a result of plundering various funds," he said.
Ivan Tertel drew attention to the fact that the American side and President Donald Trump personally saw these abuses by taking restrictive measures on the work of the relevant funds in order to stop the theft of the US budget.
"It's different in other countries so far. But this is a matter for the authorities of these states. And, probably, the people and the population of these states, in particular Lithuania and some others, have the right to ask their officials what the blood money is spent on, which could go to support the elderly, medicine, and children. And in general, on humanitarian spheres, and not on direct confrontation and attempts to stir up the situation in Belarus. Despite the fact that the Republic of Belarus has always declared its peaceful intentions," the KGB chairman said.
He also stressed that the President of Belarus has always advocated good-neighborly relations and Belarusians consider that the most important relations are sometimes not even with relatives, but with neighbors.
"We were guided by this principle. The President was guided. He gives instructions to us in all directions to work on other issues in line with such approaches. We are working together with the Foreign Ministry, reporting to the head of state. He directly manages the process and personally participates in these events," Ivan Tertel summed up.
Earlier, Alexander Lukashenko met with the special representative of the US President Keith Kellogg. On the same day, the Belarusian authorities released 14 prisoners, among whom was the husband of the fugitive oppositionist Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, sentenced to 18 years.