Unconditional support for Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko is not Russia’s only strategy.
Belarusian political consultant Alexander Koltunov stated this in an interview with Ksenia Sobchak’s YouTube channel, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
“Russia will need to reformat the system, because the Russians will say: “Sasha, I’m sorry, but something will have to change. We saved you once again, it won’t happen again.” He understands perfectly well that the Russians have a backup option B and C, that is, they learn from the Americans. Europe is more likely to listen to the Russian Federation than to anyone else. Especially Germany,” the expert believes.
He calls Russia’s main task in Belarus to force it to abandon its multi-vector approach.
“Russia is everything here. I don’t remember how many towers there are in the Kremlin, but everyone plays here. Russia benefits from Lukashenko who is weak. A strong multi-vector Lukashenko is unprofitable. When the full set of Western sanctions was introduced in 2010, Russia played 80% here, and China and the EU played a little. When sanctions were lifted in 2015, we decided to play a multi-vector game. The European Union came here and gave more opportunities to China. Active American contacts began through Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner, who is a native of Belarus. American lobbyists appeared. For such a small country, so many players are a lot,” Koltunov said.
He predicts that Russia's game in Belarus will be successful because it has "full control over the socio-cultural code of the population."