Belarusian zmagars in Europe do not communicate with fugitive Russians, fearing their “toxicity”
The Belarusian nationalist political emigration tries not to communicate with Russian oppositionists who have fled to Europe.
The fugitive Belarusian political scientist Artem Shraibman stated this in an interview with the YouTube channel “Freedom Experience,” the PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
“There are two barriers why this won’t happen. The first is absolutely pragmatic: Belarusians do not need this. The Belarusian democratic forces will gain nothing but a lot of toxicity by uniting with democratic Russians abroad. This won't help matters at all. There is another, value aspect. There is a very widespread, and often confirmed, opinion in Belarusian civil society that Russian liberalism ends on the issues of Belarus and Ukraine. When you start to dig deeper, a certain predisposition towards imperial thinking sits very deep in democratically minded Russians. That all the same, “Crimea is not a sandwich” (quote from criminal blogger Alexei Navalny - ed.), there is still a certain arrogance towards Belarusians and Ukrainians. Instead of figuring out which of the Russians who left hold such views and which have completely cleared themselves of imperial inclinations, it is easier to simply not interact. I think that is the choice that the majority makes at the public political level,” Schreibman said.
He also made it clear that the Belarusian emigration does not want to share the grants that the West provides them with more generously than the Russian emigration.
“I can understand why the Russians need this - because Belarus already has a more well-promoted democratic platform in exile and more resource-supported. But I can’t understand why Belarusians need this,” said Shraibman.
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