Igor Rachkovsky. Chain dog of the regime

Rachkovsky, Igor Anatolievich

Born in 1968 in the city of Smorgon, Grodno region.

In 1990 he graduated from the command engineering department of the Riga Higher Military-Political School, in 1996 - courses from the Institute of National Security of the Republic of Belarus, in 2001 - the Belarusian State the University of Economics majoring in "Jurisprudence". Major General.

Served in various officer positions in the Armed Forces and agencies state security.

In the border troops since September 1998. Since 2004, he headed the Separate Service for Active Measures of the Border Troops (OSAM).

Since April 2007 - Chairman State Committee Border Troops of the Republic of Belarus.

Since September 27, 2007 - Chairman of the State Border Committee of the Republic of Belarus. On July 31, 2012, he was removed from office and placed at the disposal of the State Border Committee for improper performance of official duties to ensure the national security of the Republic of Belarus. The incident occurred on July 4, 2012: a Swedish plane crossed the borders of Belarus, from which bears with notes were scattered over Ivenets and Minsk. allegedly descended on Belarus in support of freedom of speech.

Married. Has five children.

Source:website of the State Border Committee of the Republic of Belarus

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“Belarusian Partisan” continues to publish portraits of those who provide forceful cover for the regime of Alexander Lukashenko. This time we will talk about the Chairman of the State Border Committee of Belarus Igor Rachkovsky, who for some time was the commander of Viktor Lukashenko, and since then has the right to dance with his wife.

We talk about the most influential people in modern Belarus, mainly generals. We have already published portraits of the Minister of Internal Affairs, the Chairman of the KGB, the head of the new special service - the Operational Analytical Center under the President, and talked about the head of the presidential administration. How did the chief of the Belarusian border guards get on this list?

Indeed, in most civilized countries, the head of the state border protection service is a fairly ordinary official and, as a major political figure he usually does not appear. In many states, border security is not even managed by a separate department; this function is often included in the competence of other law enforcement agencies. But today's Belarus differs from developed countries not only in this...

Unusual high position and the importance of the Belarusian Border Committee is due to several purely subjective reasons.

First of all, let us remind you that President Lukashenko himself once served in the border troops. Border guard No. 1 in Belarus is AHL. Since then, he has had a special relationship with this military department. After graduating from university, he also sent his eldest sons - Victor and Dmitry - to serve where he himself had once been, almost to the same outpost. The Belarusian president has already explained the reason for this decision - supposedly the sons should go the same way as their father. A normal desire of any father. Only in this case, it is not the individual family that suffers, but the whole state.

In the 90s, this was nothing more than a nostalgic memory of Lukashenko; young border guard officers Viktor and Dmitry added additional shades to this paternal attitude. The sons also developed a special feeling for the border troops.

It was from this moment that the story of the personnel success of the young officer Igor Rachkovsky began, and the growing influence of the Belarusian border guards, whom colleagues call “kefirs” because their caps match the color of the caps of the Soviet fermented milk product.

Victor and Dmitry Lukashenko did not serve at the God-forsaken Polesie outpost, these young and promising officers served in the elite, most prestigious unit of the border troops - OSAM (Separate Service for Active Measures). This is a special detachment of the border troops, their special forces.

Initially, Igor Rachkovsky was the most ordinary colleague of Vitya and Dima, but the young and ambitious intelligence officer was quicker than others to grasp the enormous prospects of friendship with the sons of the head of state. Rachkovsky first came to our attention as the deputy head of OSAM. He was assigned to take care of the presidential children.

He coped with the task, and soon went for a promotion, becoming the head of OSAM - the reconnaissance and security special forces unit of the border troops. How exactly this happened is not yet known for certain. However, among border guards they say famous story, when Rachkovsky, being the deputy commander of OSAM, treated his boss to cognac at his workplace, and then he himself urgently called the KGB military counterintelligence in the person of Valery Vakulchik, well known to us, now the head of the Operational Analytical Center. A few days later, Rachkovsky took the vacated position. Probably, these are just rumors, and Rachkovsky deserved the promotion for his military work.

Igor Anatolyevich quickly realized that with such support - friendship with Viktor and Dmitry Lukashenko - he had a real chance to receive the coveted general's stripes. For a long time he waged an internal struggle with the irreplaceable chief border guard Alexander Pavlovsky, whom the pope-president loved, and eventually managed to outplay him.

Lieutenant General Pavlovsky was sent into retirement with some kind of bitterness. The long-term commander of the border guards was suspected of some kind of corruption. Someone successfully leaked some materials to journalists, created fog and cast shadows on the weaving. Pavlovsky fell from office and almost ended up behind bars, and on April 10, 2007, Alexander Lukashenko appointed the head of the OSAM special unit, Igor Rachkovsky, as chairman of the State Border Troops Committee.

This personnel decision sounded like a thunderbolt among the border guards. clear skies"Many were perplexed not so much because of Pavlovsky's resignation, but rather about the appointment of Igor Rachkovsky as the new commander. In the presence of existing border generals, the appointment of a colonel with a dubious reputation did not fit into the usual army traditions. Not only his subordinates grumbled, they even doubted the correctness of this personnel decision security forces loyal to Lukashenko from other departments. The former main contender for this position - the first deputy chairman of the state border troops committee, General Vadim Zaitsev, who has his own personal relationship with Viktor Lukashenko, tactfully remained silent at that moment. The young team of the president’s eldest son had already matured a detailed plan for seizing power in the country. country.

To calm the murmur that had begun, Lukashenko hastily made Colonel Rachkovsky a general. Igor Rachkovsky, who received general's shoulder straps right on his 39th birthday, was ahead of the youngest Belarusian general, the notorious Leonid Glukhovsky. Only in 2011, in the list of the youngest generals, the championship was taken from Rachkovsky by the young and faithful 37-year-old prosecutor general Andrei Shved.

The sudden career rise of Igor Rachkovsky was only the first personnel decision of Lukashenko Sr., taken at the request of his son Viktor. Over time, Lukashenko Sr. will increasingly listen to the opinion of his national security aide, and the State Border Committee will turn into a forge for the leadership of Belarus.

In just a few months, the new (now almost the main) secret intelligence service of Belarus - the Operational Analytical Center under the President - will be headed by the head of counterintelligence of the border guards, Valery Vakulchik. This is a close friend of Rachkovsky, who has more than once helped him get out of difficult and unpleasant situations.

Then the first deputy chairman of the State Border Committee, General Zaitsev, will take the place of the chairman of the KGB. Following him, many border guards will exchange green shoulder straps for cornflower blue state security stripes.

A year later, border guard Grigory Veremko will become the key deputy chairman of the State Control Committee and the head of the financial police of the republic.

The almighty and devoted Lukashenko for many years, Colonel General Sheiman will be discredited, and the group of Viktor Lukashenko’s closest associates, the so-called “young wolves,” will turn into the most powerful and influential nomenklatura group in the country.

Viktor Lukashenko’s close friend Igor Rachkovsky was only the “first sign”, and for many years now the chief border guard of Belarus has been discussing with the Presidential Assistant for National Security not only issues of protecting the state border of Belarus.

They are family friends. At corporate parties of the Belarusian generals with Viktor Lukashenko’s wife Liliya, family friend Igor Rachkovsky always dances. Others, even tipsy generals, do not dare to do this.

So who is family friend Igor Rachkovsky?

His biography is quite ordinary. Born in 1968 in Smorgon, Grodno region. In 1990 he graduated from the command engineering department of the Riga Higher Military-Political School, in 1996 - courses from the Institute of National Security of the Republic of Belarus, in 2001 - from the Belarusian State Economic University with a degree in Law. He served in various officer positions in the armed forces and state security agencies, which is also noteworthy.

According to official data, in the border troops - since September 1998. He was the head of the department of military unit 1250, worked as deputy head of OSAM (Separate Service for Active Measures of Border Troops), whose task is to combat organized forms of smuggling and illegal activities, illegal migration, human trafficking, transit terrorism in state border and crime in the border agency. Since 2004 he has headed OSAM. Since April 2007 - Chairman of the State Border Troops Committee, since September 2007 - of the State Border Committee, Major General.

Igor Rachkovsky is always smiling and cheerful in public, but when reporting to the Belarusian Commander-in-Chief, he looks very serious. But he never forgets to show Kolya Lukashenko his trained German shepherds, who correctly give their paws. The child laughs with joy, and the father smiles too.

“Young Wolf” Rachkovsky, in a sense, is the personification of this team of Viktor Lukashenko. Occupying a formally insignificant position, Igor Anatolyevich has unlimited influence on Viktor Alexandrovich.

Friendship with Lukashenko’s eldest son many times saved both Rachkovsky personally and the State Border Committee as a whole from major scandals. Belarusian television and other state media do not write about the suicides of soldiers in the border troops, much less about corruption scandals in the border department. Corruption in the State Border Committee is a completely different story.

In 2008-2009 law enforcement agencies tried to understand the peculiarities of the work of Belarusian border guards. Billions of dollars in theft of budget money were established. Deputy Chairman of the Civil Prosecution Committee Komarnitsky and a number of his subordinates were arrested. Although some of the fictitious agreements that became the subject of the investigation were signed not only by Komarnitsky, but also by Rachkovsky and his first deputy Zaitsev. However, the initiator of these investigations, Minister of Internal Affairs Naumov, was dismissed, and the criminal case was limited to only the already proven episodes and the prosecution of General Komarnitsky exclusively.

They say that at that time Rachkovsky was not engaged in protecting the Belarusian borders, but literally did not leave the office of the Belarusian military prosecutor, Mr. Dranitsa, and they found mutual language. At that time, no one was able or willing to conduct further investigation.

Igor Rachkovsky celebrated the victory and thanked Viktor Lukashenko very much for his assistance.

Today Igor Rachkovsky is no longer afraid of anything; he enjoys the unlimited trust of Viktor Lukashenko and the favor of Lukashenko Sr.

There is more and more evidence that a military junta is being formed in Belarus - a system of power in which at the top of the management pyramid there are people from the same family and the same power structure. In this case, the law ceases to play any role, and everyone who finds themselves outside the family or military fraternity automatically arouses suspicion.

The team of “young wolves” has its own contradictions, the role of “ right hand“Both KGB Chairman Zaitsev and the head of the OAC Vakulchik are trying to challenge Viktor Lukashenko. However, they say that Viktor Alexandrovich still believes his former commander and close friend Igor Rachkovsky. At least no one else dances with Viktor Lukashenko’s wife during the holidays.

Lukashenko considered Rachkovsky guilty of the Swedish plane flying over Belarus and dismissed him.

Chairman of the Border Committee of Belarus Igor Rachkovsky was found guilty of overflying a Swedish plane. Photo by Radio Liberty.

Five facts from the biography of the former chairman of the Border Committee of Belarus:

1. Commander of Victor and Dmitry Lukashenko

Before his appointment to the post of chief border guard of Belarus, Igor Rachkovsky headed the Separate Active Measures Service (OSAM) of the border troops, the same one where Viktor and Dmitry Lukashenko served. “They were in the rain and in the cold. In a word, they served like everyone else. I know them well. And these relationships are maintained. But there is no need to talk about excessive closeness to the presidential family,” Rachkovsky said about his relationship with Lukashenko’s sons.

2. Chief Zaitsev

Before being promoted to the KGB, Vadim Zaitsev was for some time Igor Rachkovsky's deputy in the border committee. Moreover, Rachkovsky was just a colonel, and Zaitsev was a major general. Following Zaitsev, many border guards joined the KGB.

Rachkovsky received his appointment to the border committee at the age of 39. He had a brilliant career until the incident with the Swedish “teddy landing force”.

3. Made border guards smile

In his work at the Border Committee, Rachkovsky strove for European standards. He modernized the work of border guards. He even made them smile when interacting with citizens. “There are hardly any opponents to the fact that the borders of Belarus have become faster, more convenient, friendlier and kinder,” noted Rachkovsky. By the way, he called the border with Russia the most difficult part of his work, which “seems to not exist.”

4. Used it once Belarusian language

Few Lukashenko officials use the Belarusian language. Rachkovsky used it during a report in the lower house of the Belarusian parliament in 2010. This is how the Belarusian language was heard in the Belarusian parliament for the first time in a long time. “My position is clear. As you noticed, when entering the Republic of Belarus, the first entry with the name of the country is in Belarusian. After all, this is our identification. If we want to be respected, we must respect ourselves,” the border guard explained his decision.

5. Father-in-law and children

There were various rumors regarding the relationship between Rachkovsky and Viktor Sheiman. Some said that Sheiman opposed the appointment of Rachkovsky, others that the father-in-law of the chief border guard was Sheiman’s deputy. They even considered it necessary to refute the last speculation: “This is not true. My father-in-law is a Doctor of Science, he teaches at the Presidential Academy of Management, he is an economist.” By the way, since we remembered the family, Igor Rachkovsky has five children.