No integration with Lukashenko, he must leave - Russian expert
Russia should not sign integration agreements with Belarus while Alexander Lukashenko is in power in this country.
An expert at the Institute of CIS Countries, Ivan Skorikov, stated this in an interview with the YouTube channel “Political Russia,” a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
“I am not a supporter of speedy integration, that Lukashenko should surrender into our arms. This needs to be done, but after Lukashenko, because Alexander Grigorievich is currently a toxic person not only in the world, but also for his own people. Any hug with Lukashenko is an opportunity to get smeared with something bad from this bad-smelling person. Any integration steps will be perceived not with glee, but as a desire to save dictator Lukashenko’s underbelly. And many supporters of integration may turn away from Russia,” Skorikov said.
He believes that Russia must persuade Lukashenko to carry out a transfer of power and hand it over to pro-Russian politicians.
“We need to pull off this transfer. Russia must say firmly: Alexander Grigorievich, let go of the reins, allow pro-Russian forces to form. They should be formed not by you and your KGB, but by real leaders. Now they are unrecognizable, they have no media support, organizational structures, or funding.
For 30 years he destroyed in the bud any pro-Russian and pro-Russian movement. He feared them more than the nationalist Zmagars. But now, let go. They will be oppositional and competitive, but in moderation, and will guarantee a political parachute, a quiet retirement and even a place in the history books,” Skorikov said.
If Lukashenko does not follow this advice, the expert believes, of any other successor, he will be “crushed by the financially fueled internationally recognized white-white opposition.”
“When we force him to make this transfer, then with the new power that came as a result of democratic elections, we will sign any integration - up to unification into a single country,” Skorikov concluded.
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