Vadim Zaitsev, the former head of the KGB of Belarus, who disappeared from public view in November 2012, unexpectedly showed up in a new position. He became the CEO of Cosmos-TV, the largest private cable operator in the Belarusian capital. Some six months ago, Zaitsev Vadim Yuryevich was considered one of the most influential security officials. This article provides some facts from the biography of a retired KGB officer.
Who is he?
Belarusian political establishment has replenished with a new name relatively recently. Zaitsev Vadim Yurievich is a politician who has achieved incredible success in the wake of a change in leadership in the country. A couple of years ago, no one could have imagined that Zaitsev, who had guarded the state border all his life, would be able to make such a dizzying career and turn into one of the most influential figures in the statecountry system.
Former chairman of the KGB of the Republic of Belarus Vadim Yurievich Zaitsev held this post from 2008 (June) to November 2012. Prior to that, from 2005 to 2007, he served as first deputy chief, and from 2007 to 2008, first deputy chief of the State Committee of the Belarusian Border Troops. Has the rank of lieutenant general.
Vadim Zaitsev: biography. Border Troops
Vadim Yurievich was born in 1964 in Ukraine, in the Zhytomyr region. His father was in the military.
In 1986, he graduated from the Moscow Higher Border Command School of the KGB of the USSR. He began to serve as deputy head of the frontier post. After the collapse of the Union, he continued to serve in the State Committee for Border Troops of Belarus.
Until 1994, he served as head of the frontier post. From 1997 to 1998, after graduating from the Academy of the Federal Border Service, he served in the State Border Protection Department. From 1998 to 2002, Zaitsev worked as deputy head of the detachment, chief of staff, head of the border detachment in Pinsk. In 2004 he graduated from the general faculty of the Military Academy of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces.
In 2005, Vadim Zaitsev was appointed Deputy Chairman of the GCPV. Since April 2007, he has been working as the first deputy chairman of the SCPV as the chief of staff. By the decree of President Lukashenko in September 2007, Vadim Zaitsev was appointed to the position of the first deputy chairman of the State Committee for Combating the Armed Forces and assumed the duties of the beginning. Chief Operationalmanagement. All this time, Zaitsev was also the head of the Faculty of Border Troops at the Institute of National Security of Belarus.
KGB
In July 2008, Zaitsev Vadim Yurievich was appointed chairman of the KGB of Belarus. By this time he was in the rank of major general. In 2009, Vadim Zaitsev received the rank of lieutenant general. In December 2010, Zaitsev retained his post during the change of the Cabinet of Ministers, which took place after the presidential elections, as a result of which Alexander Lukashenko came to the leadership of the country.
Resignation
In November 2012, conflicting information about the suicide of one of the high-ranking KGB officers of Belarus began to be discussed in the Belarusian media. Some publications reported on the murder. Later it became known that the tragedy happened to Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Kazak.
This case, as well as a number of "other issues" that took place, requiring, as President Alexander Lukashenko believed, a thorough investigation, caused Vadim Zaitsev to be fired. It was envisaged that this measure was temporary: with a positive result of the investigation, if Zaitsev and other officials involved in this high-profile story prove their competence, the former leader will return to his post. But in the second half of November, his position on a permanent basis was already filled by another.
Personal friend of Viktor Lukashenko
In the media, Zaitsev was called a personal friend of the son of the President of the countryViktor Lukashenko. It is known that Viktor is also a border guard officer by education. Works in the Security Council of the country.
Chain Dog of the Regime
Lieutenant-General Zaitsev, a man with a particularly unremarkable biography of an officer of the border troops, is called by journalists and political scientists the "watchdog of the regime."
After he joined the KGB, the office became unrecognizable, undergoing unprecedented changes. The new chairman of the KGB probably took too literally Lukashenko's parting words on the need to improve the personnel policy in the state security system. In a matter of months, people from the GKPV (State Border Committee) appeared in many key leadership positions. Someone was dismissed without explanation, some of the senior officers were offered regular positions for their previous services to their homeland.
General Zaitsev did an excellent job with his initial task. Viktor Lukashenko, together with the new chief of the most important Belarusian intelligence service, managed to convince the president that the KGB needed additional official powers. In 2009, the KGB received the right to initiate and investigate all types of criminal cases. At some point, the classic cases that the KGB traditionally deals with - espionage, treason, etc. - fell by the wayside.
Professional lawyers assure that in no civilized state of the world does the special service have procedural powers that are comparable to the rights of the Prosecutor General's Office.
Reforms
General Zaitsev, with the help of his patrons, radical changes were made to the work of the Belarusian KGB. During his service, he held the threads of all key investigations in his hands.
New employees were seconded to the KGB, technical capabilities were strengthened, additional financial resources were received. The organization began open control of public prosecutors and judges.
Belarusian KGB acquired a disgusting reputation during the tenure of its leader Vadim Zaitsev. On the conscience of the former chief Chekist of the republic, dozens of initiated criminal cases and operations, which caused not only indignation of the citizens of the country, but sometimes international scandals.
First of all, these are unprecedented in their cynicism and cruelty the reprisals committed by him against political opponents of the current government. The nature of the system was the falsification of criminal cases in the KGB headed by Zaitsev. It is known that all the arrested oppositionists were kept in the KGB isolation wards. Former presidential candidate from "European Belarus" Andrei Sannikov provided the media with information that General Zaitsev interrogated him personally. During the interrogation, the head of the KGB threatened the oppositionist, his wife, a journalist, and their young son with reprisals.
Under General Zaitsev, a tragicomic defense of Korzh, a stealing KGB general, allegedly slandered by the media, was carried out. Under the guise, the offices of almost all independent media were turned over, in whichtechnique. It was General Zaitsev who carried out the massacre of the "hunters" from the Ministry of Internal Affairs, who got close to the corruption criminal schemes of the KGB and the State Border Committee. The same Zaitsev literally trampled on the lead investigator of the General Prosecutor's Office Svetlana Baikova - the woman tried too hard to figure out what was really happening on the Belarusian border.
Under General Zaitsev, a resonant so-called "hunting affair" unfolded, which became the climax of the rivalry between the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the KGB. "Chekists" won.
The media became aware that the person whom the president trusted more than his own son was Zaitsev Vadim Yurievich. The awards of the former Chekist are not indicated in the sources.
KosmosTV
In 2013, the former head of the KGB became the new CEO of KosmosTV. The largest Minsk private cable operator told the media about the appointment of a general director, as well as the creation of additional management bodies in the company - a directorate and a supervisory board, they are provided for in the updated version of the charter. This is supposed to provide "a significant improvement in the state of corporate governance in the company and control over business processes."
