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<\/div>\n<\/div>\nA man shows bruises he says were left by a police beating after being released from a detention center in Minsk in August.<\/span><\/div>\n Astapovich, who was a participant in that meeting, said that the ranks of Belarus\u2019s law enforcement are split into two groups: those who chase protesters, wielding batons and firearms, and those he calls the \u201cintellectuals\u201d — senior-ranked civil servants with university degrees and an increasing sense of disillusionment with Lukashenka\u2019s regime.<\/p>\n It\u2019s the former whose actions receive media attention, Astapovich said, because they are on the streets trying to crush the protests.<\/p>\n \u201cThey give the impression of unity,\u201d he said. \u201cBut those who actually make decisions are increasingly siding with the people. The system is collapsing.\u201d<\/p>\n It is difficult to verify Astapovich\u2019s claims, or the scale of disillusionment within the ranks of Lukashenka\u2019s government. In written comments to RFE\/RL, Tsikhanouskaya confirmed the October meeting with former officials in Warsaw and said the opposition needs their expertise to understand how to get more officials on its side and gain a deeper understanding of how Lukashenka\u2019s regime works.<\/p>\n But while she stated that she sees \u201cno obvious tendency\u201d of desertion from Lukashenka\u2019s security apparatus, she said many of its employees are simply afraid.<\/p>\n \u201cWe receive hundreds of messages from people in power who want to defect,\u201d she said. \u201cBut the system is built in such a way that the authorities take revenge on everyone who quits. Therefore, many hold on to their places, and remain silent.\u201d<\/p>\n One indication of By_Pol\u2019s inside connections is the content on the group\u2019s YouTube channel — more specifically, two leaked videos from cameras strapped to the chests of riot police officers as they worked on two recent Sundays to stamp out protests, which have gathered tens of thousands of views since their publication last week.<\/p>\n The clips provide perhaps the most candid glimpses yet of how riot police on the streets of Minsk operate. One features video from inside a riot van packed with arrested activists who sit cowering on the ground as they\u2019re driven to a detention center. The other shows a group of armed riot police officers traveling in an unmarked minivan to a street protest. They slide open the door and issue shots from a firearm. \u201cPrepare the grenades!\u201d one shouts.<\/p>\n The second clip is dated October 25, the day riot police violently dispersed protesters gathered near the local headquarters of the Interior Ministry, and appears to have been filmed by someone taking part in the dispersal, Current Time reported on November 28. Current Time is a Russian-language network led by RFE\/RL in cooperation with VOA.<\/p>\n Astapovich would not identify the source of the videos, but he said hundreds of law enforcement officers are feeding material to his group.<\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019re starting an insurrection from within the system,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019ve launched this movement and with their help we\u2019ll now fight the regime on our own terms.\u201d<\/p>\nWith reporting by Iryna Romaliyskaya of Current Time<\/h6>\n\n