MINSK. March 23 (Interfax) - The information that a thousand officers of the Belarusian Interior Ministry have recently resigned is fake news, press secretary for the ministry Olga Chemodanova said on the Belarus 1 television channel Monday.
"The information disseminated on the internet about a thousand policemen having allegedly resigned and left Interior Ministry divisions is a pure fake. Of course, it's not true," Chemodanova said.
Compared to 2019, the number of dismissed staff members decreased by more than 400 in 2020, she said.
The Belarusian opposition earlier spread the information that since the start of the 2020 presidential election, more than 1,000 employees had left the units of the Belarusian Interior Ministry.
Belarus has seen continuous protests against the official results of the presidential election that took place on August 9, 2020. The authorities declared incumbent President Alexander Lukashenko the winner. Lukashenko has been in office since 1994. The opposition does not recognize the results of the presidential election, saying the election was rigged. Protesters are demanding Lukashenko's resignation, the release of political prisoners, and a new election. The protests have recently become local.