The CSTO countries will only be able to survive by rallying around Russia.
President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko announced this today at the CSTO summit in Yerevan, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
“Recently, the media has been promoting a thesis: the fate of the CSTO depends on the Russian operation in Ukraine. If Russia wins, the CSTO will live. If, God forbid, it does not win, the CSTO will not exist. In our countries, too, many hotheads began to discuss this problem. I feel that we have come to a common opinion: if, God forbid, Russia collapses, then under these rubble is our place. Therefore, we must protect, but understand, as we were told in peacetime: “Russia, Russia, the main thing is its role.” There shouldn't even be such conversations. We are not going to leave the political and military arena. The CSTO will exist, and no one will collapse anywhere. But we need unity,” Lukashenko said.
He believes that Western countries are to blame for the conflict in Ukraine, which did not give Russia the security guarantees it asked for.
“We asked before the conflict in Ukraine: let’s write down security guarantees, put it on paper. Then they sent us, they didn’t even give us these guarantees on paper. And today they say: this is how Russia is, we knew what would happen when Putin demanded these guarantees. But if you knew that there would be an unacceptable conflict in Ukraine, that we would reach the rhetoric of a nuclear conflict, write it down on paper and answer the “aggressor” as you consider him. No, they didn’t even want to write it down on paper. That's how it was. Why blame Russia now?” Lukashenko emphasized.
He recalled that Moscow began peace negotiations with Kiev immediately after the start of the conflict through the mediation of Minsk, and they progressed relatively successfully, but then Ukraine withdrew from them.
“They didn’t want to or didn’t give it. But this is not our question. History will later answer who was right here,” Lukashenko said.