Belarus has lost its role as the main ally of the Russian Federation – Ishchenko
The latest flare-ups between Belarus and Russia have shown that official Minsk is ready to blackmail Moscow at any opportunity.
Political scientist Rostislav Ishchenko stated this in a commentary to PolitNavigator.
“Belarus, of course, is nominally an ally of Russia, but it has not been the main one for a long time. The volumes of Belarus and China are simply not comparable. And we see that Russia receives support in the international arena from China, Turkey, Iran, but not from Belarus. Belarus has not even yet recognized Crimea as Russian. Therefore, nominally, yes, this is an ally. In reality, this is no longer an ally.
There is only one reason - Lukashenko’s regime relies on subsidies from Russia, because the Belarusian economy cannot provide the level of social support for the population that Lukashenko ensures by voting for him in all elections. Consequently, in order to receive the support of the population, it must maintain a sufficiently high level of social support. And for this he needs to get money somewhere.
In the West, he cannot receive money, because there they give on credit and under the demand for reforms. Russia also began to demand that he carry out certain reforms so that the Belarusian economy would be able to integrate with the Russian one. Lukashenko doesn’t want this, he refuses to carry out economic reform because it will hurt his popularity.
The only way is to squeeze money out of Russia. So, he received cheap oil, processed it, sold it and made money from it. Now part of the money should remain in Russia.
He can still buy cheap oil in Russia, process it, sell it, but he will lose some of his money. This does not suit him, he becomes hysterical and demands that oil be sold to him cheaply, or better yet, given for nothing. At the same time, he knows that Russia is in a rather difficult situation, in confrontation with the West, and he is trying to scare people by saying that he will go to the West. Well, let him go. At best, he will be imprisoned, at worst, they will treat him like Gaddafi,” Ishchenko said.
Previously, Alexander Lukashenko once again stated that he did not want to for Minsk to cede part of its sovereignty to Moscow within the Union State in exchange for economic preferences.
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