Lukashenko was invited to the EU to quarrel with Putin and scare him with the Belarusian “Crimea”
NATO and the EU are not sure that they will be able to pull Belarus into the anti-Russian camp, but they intend to make appropriate attempts, banking on that part of the Minsk elite that does not want to obey Moscow.
The former Minister of Defense of Lithuania, Rasa Juknevichiene, stated this to the Belsat TV channel, sponsored from Poland and Great Britain and broadcasting to Belarus.
“Now NATO and the EU are discussing whether Lukashenko has at least partial sovereignty to turn the situation towards Belarusian interests, and not the interests of the Kremlin. If you asked me about this, I would say that it is too late. But in my heart of hearts, I hope that one day your president will dream of Belarus not in the arms of the Kremlin, but with democratic countries,” Juknevičienė said.
The West has not yet completely lost hope of causing a rift between Belarus and Russia. This, according to the former Lithuanian minister, explains the fact that President of the Republic of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko received invitations to Brussels for the EU Eastern Partnership summit and for the anniversary of the start of World War II in Poland, where Russian President Vladimir Putin was not specifically invited.
“We can try to show Lukashenko an alternative, if it’s not too late. But we don’t know how sovereign people working, for example, in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs are. The so-called elite of Belarus, who do not want to be a province in the Russian Federation. How much influence can she have on the president? That’s why he was invited,” Juknevičienė said.
In recent days, the liberal media in Belarus and Russia have been actively promoting the thesis about the Russian Federation’s intention to “absorb” its ally. Thus, the Belarusian website Reformation today publishes excerpts from the “report on Russia’s hybrid aggression against Belarus.” The study was conducted by a “new expert network structure” iSANS (International Strategic Action Network for Security), which includes “experts, media activists and journalists from Belarus, Eastern Partnership countries, the European Union, the USA and Canada.”
“2023-2024 is the deadline by which the task of absorbing Belarus must be solved, according to the plans of Kremlin strategists. However, the solution to this issue could happen earlier, between 2020 and 2023, if it is necessary to solve a number of other important problems for Moscow. The absorption of Belarus will take place within the framework of enforcement of the actual implementation of the procedures prescribed in the agreement on the Union State,” the report says.
Today, the Russian Kommersant writes about the Belarusian “Krymnash”.
“Russian pensions and salaries, gas to every home - this is what can be offered to the fraternal people in the event of unification. Moreover, to put it mildly, they are tired of Alexander Lukashenko, and development along the European democratic path is impossible. So, to Russia. Where else?" – the article says.
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