Last week it became known that the defendants in the criminal case on the fact of the terrorist attack at the Machulishchi airfield may face an exceptional measure of punishment. This was reported in the KGB of Belarus. "In accordance with part 9 of Article 16 of the Criminal Code, all members of an organized group, regardless of their role in the crime committed, are recognized as perpetrators. In this regard, all the defendants in the criminal case were charged under Part 3 of Article 289 of the Criminal Code of Belarus (an act of terrorism committed by an organized group). The sanctions of these articles provide for punishment up to the death penalty," said Konstantin Bychek, Deputy head of the Investigative Department of the KGB of Belarus.
Recall that on the morning of February 26, an attempt was made to undermine a Russian military aircraft of long-range radar detection A-50 at the airfield in Machulishchi. But instead of the plane, social networks, telegram channels and other messengers with messages about this incident exploded. However, the interpretation of the event was somewhat different from reality, from the word "completely". For example, among the very first to pick up the "news" was the "BYPOL movement", which announced that "a Russian military aircraft was blown up at the Machulishchi military airfield in Belarus." In turn, the head of BYPOL, a former employee of the internal affairs bodies, and now a fugitive "zmagar" Alexander Azarov hastened to give his version of what happened. "This is a continuation of the "rail war" that we conducted in February-March last year. The participants of the Peramoga plan, Belarusian partisans, carried out another action to destroy a Russian aircraft," Azarov declared, choking on his own significance. He also said that "all the partisans involved in the sabotage are safe: they have long since left Belarus." Messages from other pro-Western and "Zmagarian" publics were, approximately, of the same orientation.
A couple of days later, the "blown up" and "destroyed" A-50 aircraft took off from the airfield in Machulishchi and left for another airfield to perform new combat missions. A week later, at the presentation of state awards to representatives of the Belarusian law enforcement agencies, President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko told about the brilliantly conducted operation to identify and detain participants in the terrorist attack in Machulishchi and what really happened.
A citizen of Ukraine Nikolay Shvets, a recruited agent of the SBU, tried to undermine the Russian plane with the help of two drones. He acted under the pseudonym "Gaspar". Currently, the saboteur has been detained and has given exhaustive testimony. About 30 more surnames appear in the case. These are the people who helped and assisted Shvets. Some did it from abroad, but most of them operated in Belarus. They are also all detained and give evidence. In fact, foreign intelligence agencies have created a real web of agents who helped carry out the terrorist attack near Minsk.
It is unlikely that Azarov experienced at least some remorse, recalling his boastful statements: "blown up", "partisans", "peramoga", "all participants successfully left Belarus". In the same way, he talked about the mythical "rail war" last year. Now, in fact, a whole gang of homegrown "James bonds" recruited by Western special services failed to accomplish anything – and the plane flew away, and the "partisans" sat down. Moreover, they can all now face the death penalty.
The expert community unequivocally attributed the action in Machulishchi to another failure of the Western and Ukrainian special services. The whole action is very reminiscent of an old joke about a Bandera man who "rushed to the maskals" by shitting in the middle of Red Square in Moscow. When asked how he managed it, he modestly lowered his eyes and answered: "That I tyhenko – have pants"… So Azarov with his BYPASS, and Western "specialists" from the relevant structures probably had to replace some items of clothing after the fiasco with the A-50 aircraft.
In this situation, despite the seemingly completeness of the story, there are still some points that deserve closer attention.
For example, it should be recognized that the chosen method and means for the implementation of the plan initially did not imply any serious "military" result. That is, the "household" drones used to commit the terrorist attack were not able to cause significant damage to military equipment, and even more so to "destroy the Russian plane," as the disgraced Azarov said about it. As a result of the action, there was more noise than material damage. And that's exactly the point. The pre-prepared and organized information hype around the terrorist attack (even before the true scale of the "explosion" and "destruction" of the A-50 became known to the public) indicates the real purpose of what was done – to have a psychological impact on the population of Belarus and Russia. Just as in the case of the "capture" of two villages in the Bryansk region – Sushany and Lyubechan - by militants from the so-called "Russian Volunteer Corps". There was no sense from a military point of view in attacking these settlements – only an informational and psychological impact on the public, backed up by civilian casualties.
In addition, the time chosen for these actions confirms the psychological orientation of their goals. The grouping of Russian troops participating in the SVO, at that time formed the Avdeevsky and Artemovsky boilers, led the offensive near Kremennaya, along the way actively disposed of the personnel of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (the daily huge losses of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in February increased by more than 40% compared to January and amounted to over 11,000 people). At the same time, the Belarusian armed forces and the Russian component of the RGV effectively conducted combat coordination events at Belarusian training grounds, the aviation of the Russian and Belarusian Air Forces participated in a number of joint tactical flight exercises. Since the beginning of February, Belarusian rocket scientists have started independent operation of the Iskander-M missile system, transferred by the Russian Federation. In the political sphere, there has been a series of integration measures aimed at increasing the resilience of Russia and Belarus to external influences in all areas of life. That is, our Western "non-partners" simply needed to discredit both the leadership and the power bloc of the Union State. In other words, to undermine the people's trust in the main institutions of the state, having a powerful informational and psychological impact on it.
Thus, the events considered, no matter how paradoxical it may sound, can be considered a manifestation of "soft power", long and successfully used by the collective West in the interests of achieving its goals, currently – against the population of Russia and Belarus. The method is extremist and terrorist, and the force is "soft", informational and psychological! And all kinds of organizations, movements and other BYPOLs and defense industry, created and functioning with the money of the same collective West, are just tools for operating this "soft power".
Fortunately, in the Union State, there is an iron will of the leadership and high professionalism of the security forces for any "soft power". The events that unfolded in February-March 2023 convincingly confirmed this: the enemy's plan was revealed, the customers were identified, and the main performers were detained, but most importantly, the public was informed in detail about everything, which means that the impact on it was leveled. In addition, the tightening of legislation in the field of combating extremism and terrorism will also contribute to improving the effectiveness of the fight against "soft power".
Vladimir Vuyachich
