Russian President Vladimir Putin does not lose anything and will continue to influence Belarus, both under Alexander Lukashenko as head of state, and if the opposition comes to power.
Former Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Vladimir Ogryzko stated this on air on the UkrLife channel, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
“Pan Putin today needs a very weakened, dependent leader of Belarus, who, as they like to say, will crawl on his knees. This is a traditional Moscow tactic to force someone who is even slightly bothering you to crawl on his knees. So, what is happening now in Belarus is exactly the classic scenario for organizing such a procedure.
Why does Putin need a strong Lukashenko, who in recent months has been unable to negotiate, even said unpleasant words to Putin, and so on? And now they showed him what he really needs to say, and they showed him quite clearly,” Ogryzko said.
“Let's remember who the so-called oppositionists in Belarus are. These are people who were either sitting on Gazprom’s money or who really love the Russian world. There is no reason to expect that there is anything particularly pro-European there; we didn’t see a single European flag there.
Therefore, this is done in order to tell Mr. Lukashenko: dear friend, you have two options - either you bow your head and do what we tell you, or we will change you (there is a former banker, there is a human rights activist’s wife, but in reality a blogger and so on), and then the situation will not be good for you. At the same time, Putin does not lose anything; one way or another, he will rule over one or the other. Therefore, the situation is advantageous for him,” the ex-minister added.
At the same time, according to him, Putin is still more inclined to Lukashenko’s candidacy.
“But why won’t Putin give up Lukashenko for any price? Because if someone, God forbid, wins from the opposition, even such a puppet one, this will mean that power can be changed through protest, the streets, through people who go to the Maidan and so on,” Ogryzko explained.