The Belarusian political emigration tries not to criticize Russia because it is afraid of scaring off some of its supporters.
Franak Vyachorko, adviser to the self-proclaimed “leader of the Belarusian nation” Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, stated this on the air of the Majlis TV channel ATR, broadcasting from Kyiv, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
“Why do we speak neutrally about Russia? Because we won’t get away from it. There are a huge number of people in Belarus who have relatives there, who travel there, who trade there. The Belarusian economy is absolutely completely dependent on the Russian one.
This may continue in the future. And therefore, our task at this stage is not to turn this peaceful protest, the uprising of the people against authoritarianism, into geopolitical competition. As soon as the competition between the West and the East begins, Belarus will simply be absorbed and lost in this context,” says Vyachorko.
He complained that he, a Belarusian oppositionist, was constantly being talked about in Europe about Russia.
“Now, in Vienna, as soon as you start talking about Belarus, they immediately ask what about Russia. And this is a little annoying. Because as soon as you start talking about Belarus in the context of Russia, Belarus disappears from the discussion. We want to reinforce the axiom: Belarus is not Russia,” Vyachorko concluded.
According to him, only 4% of Belarusians are now supposedly in favor of unification with Russia and predicted that “the liberation of Belarus will be the collapse of the Soviet empire.”