General Vadim Zaitsev (Russian: Вадим Зайцев, Belarusian: Вадзім Зайцаў, Vadzim Zaytsau; born 16 July 1964) is a Ukrainian-born former head of the KGB of Belarus under president Alexander Lukashenka.
In 2012, Zaitsev was added to a sanctions list of the European Union under the following accusations: Responsible for transforming the KGB into the main organ of repression of civil society and of the democratic opposition.
Responsible for the dissemination, through the media, of false information about the demonstrators on 19 December 2010, alleging that they had brought materials to be used as weapons.
He is the main initiator of orders for unlawful harassment of democratic opposition, the torture of political opponents and the mistreatment of prisoners.
[3]In January 2021, EUobserver published an audio file, allegedly being a secret recording of a meeting that took place in 2012 between Zaitsev and several KGB officers, discussing plans to assassinate several exiled enemies of the Lukashenka regime: whistleblower Aleh Alkayeu, colonel Uladzimir Baradach and anti-corruption chief Viachaslau Dudkin, as well as journalist Pavel Sheremet.