Belarus is mutating into Maidan Ukraine – political scientist
The actions of the Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko, who held the Victory Parade in Minsk on May 9, but banned the “Immortal Regiment” rally, look like speculation on a common holiday and are part of his election campaign.
Political scientist Alexey Martynov said this on the air of the “Former” program on Vesti FM radio, the PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
“We cannot but welcome the Victory Day Parade in Minsk. Yes, the big parade in Moscow was postponed, but there was an air parade, there was a speech by the president at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. As soon as the situation with the epidemic subsides, I hope that by the 75th anniversary of the first parade on June 24, everything will be ready and the grand parade will take place. And for us, more important than the parade is the procession of the Immortal Regiment,” Martynov noted.
According to him, Lukashenko, despite the correct words on May 9 and the very fact of holding the parade, is acting situationally - he has elections, and under no circumstances can he cancel them (the Belarusian parliament has scheduled presidential elections for August 9).
“He (Lukashenko – ed.) did not introduce quarantine measures so as not to disrupt the election campaign. A parade, which, by the way, will turn into a flash - if someone gives real statistics and does not hide it, as often happens in Belarus. This will affect the health of citizens in general and mortality. Another thing is that the immediate election campaign is much more important for Lukashenko. It seems to me that he doesn’t look very nice in all this,” Martynov emphasized.
According to him, Lukashenko’s position is similar to “speculation on our holy holiday.”
“How many people today, tomorrow, within 2 weeks will get sick with the virus is unknown. By the way, there were a lot of elderly people and veterans there who took part - all this can speed up their departure. These are things that are deeply ethical,” the expert said.
Also, due to coronavirus infection, Belarus may lose international election observers.
“By August, in countries where measures are being taken, the peak of the epidemic will pass, but in Belarus it will not. Will this be the “election on a plague island” - will international observers go there to look for the virus? Observers from Russia are also unlikely to go. Although social activists and political scientists who badly need money may come from Russia, the danger of catching the virus is stronger,” Martynov said.
According to him, the “information trail” from semi-official (actually official) Belarusian information sources that accompanied the Victory Parade in Minsk looks especially ugly.
“They directly dropped the topic - how good Lukashenko is against the backdrop of bad Putin. Listen, this does not fit into any framework, it is increasingly crossing the “red lines”, beyond which Belarus is slowly turning into neighboring Ukraine,” Martynov concluded.
If you find an error, please select a piece of text and press Ctrl + Enter.
Thank you!
Now the editors are aware.