The KGB has command over theAlpha Group as the main counter-terrorist unit, and they can be tasked to help theMilitsiya and otherlaw enforcement organizations in anti-crime operations.[citation needed]
In October of that year, the Supreme Soviet mandated by law that the State Security Committee is subordinate to theSupreme Council of Belarus. In order to ensure the security of the new republic, the government provided regulations to the agency in January 1992.[6]
The headquarters of the State Security Committee (Russian:Здание КГБ,Belarusian:Будынак КДБ) is located onIndependence Avenue at the corner from Komsomolskaya Street. The building was built between 1945 and 1947 by architects Mikhail Parusnikov and Gennady Badanov.[10] The building was erected in the style ofStalinist Architecture andNeoclassicism. The left wing stretches across Independence Avenue to adjoin the neighboring House of the Minsk Mutual Agricultural Insurance Association.
Several dozens former Chairmen and senior officers of the KGB of Belarus have been included in thesanctions lists of theEuropean Union and theUnited States, especially following the brutal crackdown of peaceful protests that followed the allegedly falsified presidential elections of2006 and2010.[15] Against most of them, the sanctions have been lifted in 2016 following an improvement ofBelarus–European Union relations.
On 2 October 2020, the European Union added former chairman of the KGBValery Vakulchik, as well as the Deputy Chairmen, to its sanctions list.[16] On 6 November, ChairmanIvan Tertel was sanctioned by the EU as well.[17] These people are also subject to the restrictive measures by the United Kingdom,[18] Switzerland,[19] and Canada.[20]
The State Security Committee of the Republic of Belarus (Belarusian KGB) has continually pressured and targeted the opposition in the aftermath of the fraudulent 2020 election. The Belarusian KGB has detained, intimidated, and otherwise pressured the opposition, to includePratasevich. In November 2020, the Belarusian KGB added Pratasevich and another opposition journalist to its list of terrorists.[23]
In 2022, the KGB and Tertel were included in the sanctions lists of the European Union, the United States, Switzerland and Japan, while Ukraine blacklisted only Tertel.[24][25]
In January 2025, Canada joined the sanctions against the KGB.[26]
Vadim Zaitsev, Chairman of the KGB. According to the decision of theEuropean Union, he is “responsible for transforming the KGB into the main organ of repression of civil society and of the democratic opposition” and for state propaganda accusing the protesters of bringing weapons to their rally.” According to the EU, Zaitsev “personally threatened the lives and health of the wife and child of formerpresidential candidate,Andrei Sannikov. He is the main initiator of orders for unlawful harassment of democratic opposition, thetorture of political opponents and the mistreatment of prisoners.”[28]
Igor Bakhmatov, former Deputy Chairman of the KGB in charge of the staff and the organisation of their tasks, responsible for the repressive work of the KGB against civil society and democratic opposition.[28]
Vasili Dementey, former First deputy Chairman of the KGB (2005–2007); responsible for repressions against civil society and the democratic opposition, in particular afterthe presidential election of 2006 and in 2007.
Viktor Vegera, First Deputy Chairman of the KGB.
Leonid Dedkov, Deputy Chairman of the KGB.
Nikolai Smolenski, former Deputy Chairman of the KGB.
Nikolai Svorob, former Deputy Chairman of the KGB.
Petr Tretiak, former Deputy Chairman of the KGB and Member of the Commission of the Security Council on radio frequencies.
Ivan Tertel, Deputy Chairman of the KGB, in charge of economic crime and the fight against corruption.
Colonel Aleksandr Orlov, head of theKGB detention centre in Minsk: according to the EU, he was personally responsible for "cruel,inhuman and degrading treatment or punishment of detainees" in the weeks and months after the crackdown on the protests in Minsk on 19 December 2010, on the eve of the2010 presidential election. He has been on EU sanctions list between 2011 and 2016.[28]
Lieutenant Colonel Pavel Traulko, former operative of the military counter-intelligence of the KGB, then head of the press service of the newly formedInvestigative Committee of Belarus. He is accused of falsifying evidence and using threats in order to extort confessions from opposition activists in the KGB detention centre in Minskafter 19 December 2010. According to the EU, he was directly responsible for the use of “cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment or punishment and for denying the right to a fair trial”.[28]
In January 2021,EUobserver published an audio file, allegedly being asecret recording of a meeting that took place in 2012 between then KGB head Vadim Zaitsev and severalKGB officers, discussing plans to assassinate several exiled enemies of the Lukashenka regime: whistleblowerAleh Alkayeu, colonel Uladzimir Baradach and anti-corruption chief Viachaslau Dudkin, as well as journalistPavel Sheremet.[32] Sheremet was eventually murdered in a manner as discussed by the persons on the tape four years after the alleged recording date, in 2016.
On 1 December 2021, US-basedMeta announced that 41 fake accounts on Facebook and 4 on Instagram belonging to the Belarusian KGB were removed. The accounts criticised the actions of Poland duringBelarus–European Union border crisis in English, Polish and Kurdish, while pretending to be journalists and activists.[33]
On 10 April 2022, Meta reported that Internet accounts linked to KGB on the first day of theRussian invasion of Ukraine tried to spread fake news about the surrender of the Ukrainian army and the flight of Ukrainian authorities.[34]
^Russian:Комитет государственной безопасности Республики Беларусь, КГБ РБ|Komitet gosudarstvennoy bezopasnosti Respubliki Belarus', KGB RB;Belarusian:Камітэт дзяржаўнай бяспекі Рэспублікі Беларусь, КДБ РБ,romanized: Kamitet dziaržaŭnaj biaspieki Respubliki Belarus', KDB RB
^С. В. Марцелеў (гал. рэд) (1988),Збор помнікаў гісторыі і культуры Беларусі. Мінск, Vyd-va "Belaruskai︠a︡ savetskai︠a︡ ėntsyklapedyi︠a︡" imi︠a︡ Petrusi︠a︡ Broŭki,ISBN5-85700-006-8
