The Kremlin likely sent a senior intelligence director to Belarus to disrupt self-proclaimed President Alexander Lukashenko’s planned announcement of steps to defuse the protest crisis. Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) Director Sergey Naryshkin flew to Minsk on Oct. 22. Naryshkin’s visit is the latest in an observed pattern of senior Russian intelligence officials’ visits to Minsk. Each of these visits has coincided with key developments in the Kremlin’s hybrid war in Belarus, usually also marking changes in Lukashenko’s behavior.
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George Barros: Putin disrupts Lukashenko’s plan for defusing protests
Belarusian pensioners carrying former white-red-white flags of Belarus and flowers parade through the streets during a rally to demand the resignation of authoritarian leader and new fair election in Minsk on Oct. 19, 2020.
