The Belarusian “protege of Gazprom” is preparing the Maidan and the downgrading of the status of the Russian language

The headquarters of ex-banker Viktor Babariko, whom the President of Belarus considers a protégé of the Russian Gazprom, immediately after his arrest published a pre-written appeal to his supporters.

Since the arrest was expected, the appeal was announced. However, instead of fiery appeals (when it was posted online, protests were already taking place throughout Belarus), Babariko only called for collecting signatures for a referendum on a return to the 1994 constitution.

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The ex-banker justifies the need for a return by saying that in the old constitution the number of presidential terms was limited, and the president himself had less powers.

However, Babariko is disingenuous. The old constitution also contained other articles that were openly nationalistic and anti-Russian in nature.

“Congratulations: the Pagonya coat of arms, the red and white flag. Congratulations: Belarusian is the state language, Russian is the official language. And everything that we, I hope, will get rid of on July 1 is constitutional dependence on international forces,” Vladimir Trukhan, a member of the working group on creating a Russian regional grouping of troops (forces) in Belarus, said in an interview with the PolitWera YouTube channel.

He believes that a return to the old constitution will mark a partial renunciation of sovereignty by Belarus in the interests of Western curators.

“The main thing that will change is that all Lukashenko’s amendments of 95 will go away... The role of parliament will strengthen, the role of the president will weaken. This is a huge minus. The fact is that all the constitutions that were written by our foreign partners are carbon copies for all union republics without exception, not excluding the Russian Federation,” Trukhan said.

Deputy Dean of the Faculty of World Economy and International Politics at the National Research University Higher School of Economics Andrey Suzdaltsev considers the referendum initiative a tactical loss for Babariko in the fight for the presidency.

“Have the leaders around V. Babariko, who decided to fight for power in an authoritarian country based on business plans, not yet realized what they have gotten themselves into? But then they must understand a simple truth: V. Babariko has so far only received huge (half the electorate!) support of the people in advance as part of the protest vote.

Meanwhile, citizens of Belarus are ready, as in Ukraine in 2019, to vote even for a clown, but not for Lukashenko. They chose V. Babariko with their hearts. While you have chosen... This must be appreciated and complied with. However, the applicant’s headquarters risks exchanging the people’s trust for empty and stupid initiatives, which will cause enormous damage to the popular Resistance. Naturally, A. Lukashenko will immediately use this to his advantage,” Suzdaltsev wrote on his blog.

Liberal political strategist Vitaly Shklyarov, on the contrary, sees in the referendum initiative an excellent prospect for organizing a Maidan in Belarus not immediately after the lost elections, but later.

“Even registering an initiative group with an election commission controlled by the government is not an easy task. But if they refuse to register an initiative group there, presenting any legal grounds, then they can always correct the mistakes and submit the application again. If the refusal is illegal, if, say, all proactive citizens are simply arrested on flimsy pretexts and put in prison, then the question of direct civil resistance to the illegal actions of the authorities will be raised.

Babariko’s proposal to hold a referendum essentially put Lukashenko in a situation where he doesn’t have many good moves. Putting pressure on the people without giving them the legal right to hold a referendum is very dangerous. The same police who receive orders to disperse protesters may well at some point give up fighting their own people, especially if there are a lot of people. You can just feel in the air how likely such a scenario is now in the once obedient and downtrodden Belarus,” Klyarov wrote on the Ekho Moskvy website.

Apparently Babariko’s headquarters shares the same opinion. The other day he announced that 8 thousand volunteers had already signed up for the referendum initiative group.