Mikalai Mikalayevič Karpiankou (Belarusian: Мікалай Мікалаевіч Карпянкоў, Russian: Николай Николаевич Карпенков, Nikolay Nikolayevich Karpenkov, born on 6 September 1968 in Minsk) is a state security official of the government of Alexander Lukashenko in Belarus.
[1] After several years of military service, Karpiankou enrolled to work for the Interior Ministry of the newly independent Belarus.
[citation needed] Karpiankou was noticed among state security officials who personally participated in the crackdown of mass protests that followed a controversial presidential election.
[6][7][8][9] In November 2020, Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya initiated the recognition of GUBOPiK, the unit led by Karpiankou, as a terrorist organization for its participation in police brutality.
[10] On 15 January 2021, Belarusian independent media published an audio recording of Karpiankou allegedly speaking to interior troops and making shocking comments on the ongoing protests.
He stood there in a T-shirt and I think it wouldn’t get stuck on the other side.”[11]Referring to an order from Lukashenka personally, Karpiankou instructed the troops to be ready to kill protesters: “as president said, if someone’s pushing toward you – use your weapon, it comes out.
Because, basically, all those who take to the streets at the moment to participate in the ‘rail war’, it turns out, those who block the roads, attack the police, throw Molotov cocktails – they are terrorists.
The head of state covers us from all angles in terms of using firearms.”[11]On 2 February 2021, TUT.BY got the results of the phonoscopic analysis of the record made public by BYPOL.
[12] In April 2021, Karpiankou voiced public threats to exiled members of the opposition in an interview on Belarus state television.