Russia's FSB Detains Belarus Opposition Members For Planning Armed Coup Against Lukashenko

The Russian internal security agency FSB said Saturday it had detained two members of the Belarusian opposition for plotting to stage an armed coup against President Alexander Lukashenko

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 17th April, 2021) The Russian internal security agency FSB said Saturday it had detained two members of the Belarusian opposition for plotting to stage an armed coup against President Alexander Lukashenko.

"The FSB in cooperation with the Belarusian state security committee conducted an operation to foil illegal activities by dual US-Belarusian citizen Yuri Leonidovich Zenkovich and Belarusian citizen Alexander Iosifovich Feduta, who planned an armed coup in Belarus," a statement read.

The agency said the plot was to stage a "color revolution" the kind seen in several ex-Soviet republics with the help of Belarusian and Ukrainian nationalists, and assassinate Lukashenko, who has faced pressure from the opposition to resign after winning reelection in August.

Lawyer Yuri Zenkovich and political scientist Alexander Feduta planned to topple Lukashenko during a Victory Day parade in Minsk on May 9, the FSB said. The plan included seizing control of Belarusian television and radio, and taking Belarus off the electric grid to thwart communication of special police units and troops.

Zenkovich flew to the United States and Poland for consultations and later organized a meeting at a restaurant in Moscow with so-called Belarusian generals.

The end goal, the FSB said, was to change the constitutional order of the eastern European nation, abolish the presidential office and put a national reconciliation commission in charge. The Belarusian KGB is investigating the two suspects on charges of conspiring to stage a coup.