President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko met with State Secretary of the Security Council Leonid Maltsev on 11 May to receive his report.

The meeting focused on national security matters, in particular, the protection of the state border and the reformation of the Interior Ministry.

“Due to the recent events I had to somehow step away from matters concerning power-wielding agencies, law enforcement bodies, and the army. Therefore, I’d like you to give me a brief report about the situation in this area,” the head of state told Leonid Maltsev.

Alexander Lukashenko reminded about the standing instruction to continue reforming power-wielding agencies. The matter had been also raised in his address to the nation and the parliament.

“Naturally the reformation should go as smoothly as we have done it before, without any revolutionary ardor, without offending people and turning them against us. If some nuts have to be tightened, we will do it. If some things have to be reformed, we will go ahead and do it,” the President noted.

“The reformation of the Interior Ministry is a number one issue. All the functions, which are non-relevant for the Interior Ministry, should be cut out,” Alexander Lukashenko stressed.

Igor Shunevich, who had been appointed the new Interior Minister, will see to it.

Leonid Maltsev informed the head of state about the ongoing work to prepare the reformation of the Interior Ministry.

“We aim to enhance the public order, to improve protection of the population, lives and health of people, protection of property (all the more so because personal property thefts constitute the bulk of crimes). Naturally we will have to carry out a set of actions to prepare the personnel, not only the training part but also attitude development in order to channel every effort into the protection of the people,” Leonid Maltsev said.

Speaking about the border security, Leonid Maltsev said that the bulk of attention is paid to securing national interests of Belarus.

“While doing this, we also protect interests of Poland, Lithuania and the entire European Union. We prevent drugs, illegal migrants, and armaments from penetrating the European Union. Therefore, these countries and the European Union as a whole should take a look and take relevant measures to protect its interests. Let us make arrangements about what else needs doing instead of getting some sanctions enforced to only make matters worse,” Leonid Maltsev said.

He pointed out that the need to straighten out border crossing procedures at the Belarusian-Ukrainian border due to the forthcoming European football championships had arisen. Belarus had to relocate some personnel from the Belarusian-Polish border to the Belarusian-Ukrainian one.

A border guard exercise will be held at the state border soon to train the ability to provide quality border security in the new conditions.

The President gave instructions to analyze the situation in order to guarantee reliable protection of the state border and to secure national interests. If necessary, these matters should be addressed by the border service together with the Interior Ministry and local residents.