The chief of Belarusian Interior Affairs Ministry states that “anything is allowed for him”.
“Please name at least one regulatory legal act which would prevent me as Interior Minister to define the manner the uniform should be worn. Then I will tell you, whether a policeman was right or wrong,” said Arkadzy Kulyashou (Arkadiy Kuleshov), answering questions of Komsomolskaya Pravda in Belarus during a call-in show with Respublika newspaper readers.
“I think you would not be able to name any such regulatory legal acts. The military forces have one. However, the military regulations give a commander a right to choose the uniform considering the weather, carrying out this or that mission. The Interior Minister decides on the uniform, considering circumstances of the case and the mission which is carried out,” he continued.
To the questions whether there was an official order for policemen to work in plainclothes during the rallies on Wednesdays, Kulyashou answered: “It was my order Personally mine.”
He also admitted that the scandalous amendments to the law “On Mass Events” which equate inactivity organised with the help of social networks, with protest rallies, had been initiated by the Interior Affairs Ministry.
“As Interior Minister, I am concerned by one thing: violation of the peace, disturbance of public order in the country. It will be a lever for me, which would give me a right and possibility to use it, for the order and peace of the majority of people in the country not to be disturbed,” the minister said.
