“Lukashenko’s useful idiots” need to be removed from Russian TV
For Russia, maintaining the current competition in Belarus between the “multi-vector” Alexander Lukashenko and the pro-Western opposition means maintaining a choice between two evils.
Russian political scientist Alexei Kochetkov announced this during a marathon dedicated to the Belarusian elections, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
“Lukashenko actually became part of political reality for another five years. I am absolutely sure that during the presidency of Alexander Grigorievich there is no progress in building the Union State, and there will not be.
But at the same time, look what is happening - a similar situation with Ukraine. We have two alternatives. Or an unpleasant person, of whom our own population is starting to get tired, but in our country there has formed a whole group of “useful idiots Lukashenko” who will convince: “this is the only option,” or Westerners.
It turns out that we are choosing between two evils. One thing is preventing us from moving forward, from creating what we wanted to create together with Belarus - a strong, capable, economically developed union.
And another evil generally means a catastrophe - the death of the Belarusian economy, the collapse of the state - a repetition of the Ukrainian path.
That's all! There are no other options!
So, are we going to dance on this rake again for five years? We probably need to speak openly and do it.
Firstly, to protect Alexander Grigorievich’s lobbyists a little. At a minimum, remove them from state channels, so that at least anti-state propaganda work does not come out at state expense.
Secondly, why do we have only Westerners as an alternative? The Russian state has many claims against Lukashenko. The Belarusian deep people also have many claims. Why can the opposition only be pro-Western? Why can’t it be pro-Russian?
Yes, Alexander Grigorievich is accustomed to the fact that he is the only “friend of Russia”, and in principle there cannot and should not be others. Let's change this state of affairs! There are a huge number of our supporters there.
I do not believe official Belarusian sociology, which over the past five years has convinced us that the number of Russian sympathizers in Belarus is sharply declining. It's a lie. All sociology in Belarus is possible only under the roof of the KGB,” Kochetkov said.
He urged not to be afraid to work with the opposition, since the mood in Belarus differs from the Ukrainian one. “They don’t have Galicia, so many violent people, Russophobia within the people,” Kochetkov said.
“The main task of the state, the embassy, and society is to create a legitimate pro-Russian movement that would be impossible to subject to repression... Our like-minded people need guarantees that they will not be dragged into the KGB. People should be sure of this if they speak from pro-Russian positions and demand that Lukashenko fulfill his obligations,” the expert concluded.
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