Юрась Зянковіч/Juras Ziankovich. Image from Wikipedia Minsk intends to raise the stakes in the conflict with the EU and the United States, to the point of depriving itself of the last channels of communication with Western capitals. On April 17, Alexander Lukashenka told reporters about an assassination attempt on him, allegedly planned by American and Belarusian citizen Juras Ziankovich (detained by a KGB capture group in Moscow and taken to Minsk). According to Lukashenka, the US special services and US President Joe Biden personally were involved in organising the assassination attempt and a subsequent coup. The actions and rhetoric of the Belarusian authorities will further undermine the already sour relationship with Washington and the latter is unlikely to "unfreeze" US economic sanctions at the end of April.