• Email Us: [email protected]
  • Contact Us: +1 718 874 1545
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Medical Market Report

  • Home
  • All Reports
  • About Us
  • Contact Us

Belarus opposition says man killed in shootout was IT worker

September 29, 2021 by David Barret Leave a Comment

September 29, 2021

By Natalia Zinets and Matthias Williams

(Reuters) -Belarusian security forces shot dead a 31-year-old man, identified by the pro-democracy opposition as an IT worker with U.S. company EPAM Systems, during a raid on Tuesday at an apartment block in the capital Minsk.

The man had opened fire against the security forces, one of whom also died, the KGB security service said in a statement. It also said his wife had been arrested.

The Investigative Committee of Belarus, which investigates major crimes, said a 31-year-old man was “liquidated with return fire” after resisting law enforcement officers.

Reuters could not independently verify the statements or footage of the incident that was aired on Belarusian state television.

EPAM declined immediate comment.

Forces loyal to President Alexander Lukashenko unleashed a violent crackdown on protests following a disputed election last year, including searches of apartment blocks where they believed protesters were hiding.

In power since 1994, Lukashenko has defied Western sanctions and opposition calls to step down and described the protesters as criminals bent on violent uprising.

The IT industry – mainly housed in a state-run technology park on the outskirts of Minsk – was a driving force behind the protests. EPAM’s Belarusian founder was a signatory to an open letter calling for the release of prisoners and new elections.

Local media and a senior adviser to exiled opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya identified the man killed as Andrei Zeltser, an IT worker with EPAM. A LinkedIn page of a man with the same name states he has worked at EPAM since 2016.

“He was also reportedly a U.S. citizen. According to his friends, he supported democracy movement in Belarus. His wife is detained. Mother is shocked,” Franak Viačorka, Tsikhanouskaya’s adviser, wrote on Twitter.

“I have only one comment: violence must stop! The regime hopes that violence can split society and threaten opponents. But violence cannot be the solution to the crisis. Enough victims. The rule of law must return to the country.”

Lukashenko’s spokeswoman said the death of the KGB officer would “not remain unpunished”.

The U.S. embassy did not provide immediate comment.

The official state news agency Belta reported the man was associated with the opposition movement, citing a lawmaker. The KGB did not identify the man by name or profession but said he was a “terrorist” – language it uses to describe protesters.

“I can’t say or think anything. I’m shocked, I don’t understand what’s going on,” Belarusian media outlet Nasha Niva quoted Zeltser’s mother-in-law as saying. “Andrei is a very good person, a wonderful son-in-law.”

“Do I consider Andrei a terrorist? Of course not,” she said.

Footage shown on state television showed plainclothes officers breaking down an apartment door and a man firing at them as they entered.

“In response to the lawful demands of law enforcement officers, a 31-year-old resident of Minsk refused to open the door of the apartment and was locked inside it. For the subsequent so-called ‘hype’, he was filming,” the Investigative Committee of Belarus said in a statement.

“Given the nature of the violence used, armed resistance from a 31-year-old man, he was liquidated with return fire.”

(Reporting by Natalia Zinets, Matthias Williams and Pavel Polityuk in Kyiv; Editing by Grant McCool, Stephen Coates and Catherine Evans)

Source Link Belarus opposition says man killed in shootout was IT worker

David Barret
David Barret

Related posts:

  1. Technology giant Olympus hit by BlackMatter ransomware
  2. ‘Fortnite’ creator Epic Games to appeal ruling in Apple case
  3. 2 judges rule against Tenn. Gov. Lee’s ban on mask mandates
  4. Alpha Edison leads customer service platform Thankful’s $12M round

Filed Under: News

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

  • A “Good Death”: How Do Doctors Want To Die?
  • People Are Throwing Baby Puffins Off Cliffs In Iceland Again – But Why?
  • Yet Another Ancient Human Skull Turns Out To Be Denisovan
  • Gen Z Might Not Be On Course For A Midlife Crisis – Good News, Right? Wrong
  • Glowing Plants, Punk Ankylosaur, And Has The Wow! Signal Been Solved?
  • Pulsar Fleeing A Supernova Spotted Where Neither Of Them Should Be
  • 20 Years After Hurricane Katrina: Is It Time For A New Approach To Hurricane Classification?
  • Dog Named Scribble Replicates Quantum Factorization Records – So We Tried It Too
  • How Old Is The Solar System? (And How Can We Tell?)
  • Next Week, A Record-Breaking Over 7 Billion People Will See The Total Lunar Eclipse
  • The Goblin Shark Has The Fastest Jaws In The Ocean, Firing Like A Slingshot At Speeds Of 3.1-Meters-Per-Second
  • We Thought Geological Boundaries Were Random. Now, A New Study Has Identified Hidden Patterns
  • Do Fish Sleep?
  • The Biblical Flood Myth That Inspired Noah’s Ark Had A Sinister Twist
  • Massive Review Of 19 Autism Therapies Finds No Strong Evidence And Lack Of Safety Data
  • Giant City-Swallowing Cracks In Earth’s Surface Are A “New Geo-Hydrological Hazard”
  • Three Incredible Telescopes Looked At The Butterfly Nebula To Learn Where Earth Came From
  • The Pacific Ocean Is So Vast It Contains Its Own Antipodes
  • World’s Tallest Bridge Over “Crack In The Earth” Gets Daunting Load Test By Fleet Of 96 Trucks
  • Mars’s Interior Still Has Evidence Of Ancient Impact, Dead NASA Mission Tells Us
  • Business
  • Health
  • News
  • Science
  • Technology
  • +1 718 874 1545
  • +91 78878 22626
  • [email protected]
Office Address
Prudour Pvt. Ltd. 420 Lexington Avenue Suite 300 New York City, NY 10170.

Powered by Prudour Network

Copyrights © 2025 · Medical Market Report. All Rights Reserved.

Go to mobile version