In order for the Belarusian opposition to win and carry out a successful coup, it needs to switch to forceful methods of countering the regime.
Former adviser to the Russian President Andrei Illarionov, who emigrated to the United States, said this on the air of the opposition Belarusian Internet channel In Time, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
According to Illarionov, an example of this is the coup d’état in Ukraine, which occurred in 2014.
“We conducted special research into whether nonviolent methods work. We conducted a survey of more than four hundred cases of the use of various methods during an unconventional overthrow or change of political regime. In none of these cases did nonviolent protests, no matter how radical, lead to a change in power. I emphasize once again - not a single one in the last 50 years...
Neither protests, nor a strike, nor sanctions, even all of this combined will not overthrow Lukashenko’s regime, and it will not stop Putin’s tanks. Forget about it. And this is the next important task for the Belarusian civil movement, for the Belarusian opposition - to understand that these methods do not work, that these are false methods, that these are methods that lead you to disaster...
Look at your neighbors, at your Ukrainian brothers. Why did the revolutions of the “fourth” and especially those of 13-14 win? Because they were throwing white balloons? Because they came out with flowers and stuck them into the shields of the Berkut fighters? Maybe we should remind you what the Ukrainians did? The Ukrainians built barricades, stocked up on tires, and when the Berkut soldiers started shooting, let’s be honest, the Maidan soldiers took out their weapons. I think this is no secret to anyone,” Illarionov said.