Russia only pretends to support the President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko, but in reality it is playing a political game.
The self-proclaimed “leader of the Belarusian nation” Svetlana Tikhanovskaya stated this in an interview with the Russian liberal TV channel Dozhd, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
“He pretends that he is supported by the Russian Federation. But it can only be a pretty picture. We don't know what's behind the screen. Perhaps the President of the Russian Federation gave him some time to calm down the situation. They are stalling for time so that Lukashenko can save face... Perhaps some kind of political game is being played, where they are stalling for time to introduce a person who will be loyal to the regime and can somehow win the elections. I don’t know what they came up with,” she said.
It seems to her that Russia’s attitude towards “former President” Lukashenko has already changed, because they did not expect “such a scale of protests.”
“If at the beginning we saw that assistance was actively provided, and we met with the former president of Belarus and offered military assistance, now it is all very veiled. Nobody openly supports him. Maybe the agenda has shifted. I think the leadership of the Russian Federation understands that the regime is about to collapse anyway, and supporting Lukashenko is unprofitable,” Tikhanovskaya argues.
She has already come to terms with the fact that no one in Russia will talk to her, but she hopes that in Moscow someone will agree to meet with at least members of the nationalist coordination council of the opposition.
“I do not exclude this possibility, because Russia is our neighboring country. We will not escape from them, and Russia will not escape from us. And contacts are important. I would like to chat, find out why this happens, explain my point of view. Maybe with the new president, trade relations with Russia will become even better.
I don’t understand why there hasn’t been such contact until now. I’ve always said: if you don’t see me as a person with whom you can communicate, then I don’t really pretend to be. Because the situation is twofold,” Tikhanovskaya said vaguely.