Chairman of the KGB of the Republic of Belarus Vadim Zaytsev: biography, activities and interesting facts

Vadim Zaitsev, the former head of the KGB of Belarus, who disappeared from the public's attention in November 2012, suddenly appeared in a new position. He became the general director of Cosmos-TV, the largest private cable operator in the Belarusian capital. Still some six months ago Zaitsev Vadim Yurievich was considered one of the most influential siloviki. This article contains some facts from the biography of a retired KGB man.

Who is he?

The Belarusian political establishment was replenished with a new name relatively recently. Zaytsev Vadim Yurievich is a politician who has achieved incredible success on the wave of leadership change in the country. Just a couple of years ago no one could imagine that Zaitsev, who had been guarding the state border all his life, could make such a dizzying career and become one of the most influential figures in the state system of the country.

Former chairman of the KGB of the Republic of Belarus Zaitsev Vadim Yurievich 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 Head of the State Committee of the Belarusian Border Guards. He has the rank of Lieutenant-General.

Vadim Zaitsev: biography. Frontier troops

Vadim Yuryevich was born in 1964 in the Ukraine, in the Zhytomyr region. His father was a serviceman.

In 1986 he graduated from the Moscow Higher Border Command School of the KGB of the USSR. He began to serve from the post of deputy head of the frontier post. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, he continued to serve in the Committee of State Frontier Troops of Belarus (GKPV).

Until 1994, he held the post of commander of border posts. From 1997 to 1998, after graduating from the Academy of the Federal Border Service, he was on duty at the State Border Guard Directorate. From 1998 to 2002 Zaitsev worked as deputy chief 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 Committee. Since April 2007 he has been working as the first deputy chairman of GKPV for the post of 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 Committee and started the duties of the beginning of the year. The main operational management. All this time, Zaitsev was also the head of the Faculty of Border Troops at the National Security Institute 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, which occurred after the presidential elections, as a result of which Alexander Lukashenko came to lead the country.

Resignation

In November 2012, the Belarusian media began to discuss contradictory information about the suicide of one of the high-ranking officers of the KGB of Belarus. In some publications it was reported about the murder. Later it became known that the tragedy occurred with Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Kazak.

This incident, as well as a number of "other issues" that required, as President Alexander Lukashenko considered, a thorough investigation, led to the fact that Vadim Zaitsev received resignation. It was provided that this measure is temporary: if the result of the investigation is positive, if Zaitsev and other officials involved in this resonant history prove their competence, the former head will return to his post. But in the second half of November, his post was permanently occupied by another.

A personal friend of Viktor Lukashenko

In the media, Zaitsev was called the personal friend of the son of the country's president Viktor Lukashenko. It is known that Victor is also a border guard officer by training. 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, journalists and political scientists called "a chain dog of the regime."

After his arrival at the KGB, the office became unrecognizable, undergoing unprecedented changes. The new chairman of the KGB probably received the words of Lukashenka about the need to improve the HR policy in the GB system too literally. In a matter of months, people from the GKPV (State Border Committee) appeared in many key leadership positions. Someone was dismissed without explaining the reasons, someone from the senior officers for their previous services before the homeland offered ordinary posts.

General Zaitsev perfectly completed its original task. Viktor Lukashenko, together with the new chief of the most important Belarusian special services, was able to convince the president that the KGB needed additional official powers. In 2009, the KGB was granted the right to initiate and investigate all types of criminal cases. At some point, the classic cases, which the KGB traditionally deals with-espionage, treason, etc., were in the background.

Professional lawyers assure that in no civilized country of the world the special service has procedural powers comparable to those of the General Prosecutor's Office.

Reforms

General Zaitsev, with the help of his patrons, dramatically changed the work of the Belarusian KGB. During his service, he held in his hands the threads of all key investigations.

In the KGB, new employees were seconded, technical capabilities were strengthened, and additional cash resources were received. The organization began the open monitoring of public prosecutors and judges.

By the Belarusian KGB, during his tenure as head of Vadim Zaitsev, a disgusting reputation was acquired. On the conscience of the former chief Chekist of the republic, dozens of criminal cases and operations were initiated, which provoked not only indignation of the citizens of the country, but also international scandals.

First of all, this is unprecedented in its cynicism and cruelty, the massacre committed 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 arrested oppositionists were held in KGB isolators. The former presidential candidate from "European Belarus" Andrei Sannikov provided the media with information that General Zaitsev had interrogated him personally. During the interrogation, the head of the KGB threatened to punish the oppositionist, his wife-journalist, and their young son.

Under General Zaitsev, a tragic-comic defense of Korzh, a fierce KGB general, allegedly maligned by the media, was carried out. Under the murmur, offices of almost all independent media were turned over, where equipment was irretrievably withdrawn. It was General Zaitsev who was punished by the massacre of "hunters" from the Ministry of Internal Affairs, who got close to the corrupt criminal schemes of the KGB and the State Border Guard Committee. The same Zaitsev was literally trampled under the lead investigator of the Prosecutor General's Office Svetlana Baikova - the woman was trying too hard to understand what was really going on at the Belarusian border.

Under General Zaitsev, a resonant so-called "hunting deal" unfolded, which became the climax of rivalry between the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the KGB. "Chekists" was won.

The media learned that the man whom the president trusted more than his own son was Zaitsev Vadim Yurievich. The awards of the former Chekist in the sources are not indicated.

CosmosTV

In 2013, the former head of the KGB became the new general director of CosmosTV. The largest Minsk private cable operator told the media about the appointment of the general director, as well as the creation of additional management bodies in the company - the directorate and the 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."