w much does the border cost?
On June 1, 2018, during a visit to the outpost of Dzivin, the Pinsk border detachment, where the border guards protect 32 km of the state border of Belarus with Ukraine, the President of Belarus made two statements on border security issues of the country.
The first of them concerned the increase in the number of servicemen of the border service: there are not enough of them despite the presence of latest technical means of border protection. The increase is connected with the strengthening of the protection of the border of Belarus with Ukraine as well as with the increase in the passenger and cargo traffic through checkpoints at the borders of Belarus with Poland, Lithuania, Latvia and Ukraine. In this regard, the President of Belarus instructed to study the possibility of increasing the number of border guards by 2—3 thousand people for the cost of the reduction in the Armed Forces, which will make it possible to increase the number of personnel of the outposts by 5—10 people, thereby increasing the density of border security. In addition, as President Lukashenka stated, «at the outpost they live like at home. here is no bullying, hazing» and «servicemen here will be taught better than in the army», because the border guards are «constantly on alert». According to Lukashenka, «their training is really good. In border guard they give to people more skills for the future, then at least in ordinary motorized rifles». The specificity of the border guard service is that border guards in real conditions handle the skills of actions in the isolated mobile units, which is very important in the context of current armed conflicts.
The second statement of the President of Belarus concerned the status of the Belarusian-Russian border – he, as they say, openly suggested the Russians to decide on the format of the presence of their border guards on the border with Belarus, after which the Belarusian authorities will take symmetric measures, up to the deployment of the border guard. «But we can not be like Russians. They do not understand what they want and what they do on the Belarusian-Russian border. Let them define. When they define what to do – we have no problem answering. We are ready to respond adequately at any time. If they want to close the border – no problem. They will close the border – we must also establish control at the border in response» – Lukashenka said. He also stated that this issue will be discussed during the Supreme State Council of the Union State in June.
However, it is obvious that this issue was not discussed at the Supreme State Council. Even if it was discussed, there is no result of the discussion, since Aliaksandr Lukashenka stated that they agreed to deal with this problem in the near future and «the remaining issues on the crossing of the Belarusian-Russian border should be settled».
These two statements of the President of Belarus were interpreted by many experts and analysts as a complete decision to deploy the border guard at the Belarusian-Russian border: the increase in the number of border guards will not only increase the density of protection of the border sections with Ukraine, but also create the necessary prepared reserve that can be used to protect the border with Russia.
For example, the «Belarus in Focus» information bureau stated that Lukashenka was ready «to establish full control of the eastern border»: «The Belarusian top bureaucracy seems to have realized the inevitability of the deployment of a full border control on the border with Russia. Which can begin as soon as Russia’s intentions are specified».
