English

Lukashenka dismisses KGB head

 

Alyaksandr Lukashenka on Friday relieved Vadzim Zaytsaw of the position of chairman of the Committee for State Security (KGB).

The Belarusian leader made the decision following a meeting that he held with top government officials to discuss the KGB's performance, according to the government's news agency BelTA.

Leanid Maltsaw, state secretary of the Security Council, said after the meeting that the prosecutor general and the chairman of the Investigative Committee had raised several questions over the KGB's activities, including those concerning the recent suicide of KGB Lieutenant Colonel Alyaksandr Kazak. "There are also a number of other issues that require a thorough investigation," he was quoted as saying.

Mr. Zaytsaw was placed "at the disposal of the KGB chairman," Mr. Maltsaw said.

It is Mr. Maltsaw, a former defense minister, who will be acting KGB chairman for the time being, BelTA said. "But this does not mean that Vadzim Zaytsaw cannot return to the position after the investigation is completed," Mr. Maltsaw said. "If the investigation shows him and other officials as competent, he will be reinstated in the position without a doubt."

He said that the investigation would be led by the prosecutor general and involve the Investigative Committee.

Vadzim Zaytsaw was born in Ukraine in 1964 into the family of a military serviceman. He graduated from the Moscow Higher Border Guard Command School of the USSR KGB in 1986 and from the Military Academy of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces in 2004. He worked his way from deputy chief of a border outpost to first deputy chief of the State Border Committee of the Republic of Belarus.

He was appointed to the job of KGB chairman in July 2008. //BelaPAN