Kiev accuses Moscow of intending to seize Belarus
Moscow has economic leverage to force Belarus to join Russia, similar to Crimea.
Director of the Center for Baltic-Black Sea Studies, ex-mayor of the Ukrainian border town of Rava-Russkaya Irina Vereshchuk stated this on air on the UATV Russian TV channel, PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
“Mr. Lukashenko, as an experienced politician who has been in power for many years, tried with various methods and means to evade the implementation of this agreement (the Union State Treaty of 1999 - editor's note). And, to be honest, he succeeded. Until December 2018.
In fact, the Russian Federation decided that it was time to start implementing this agreement, and they set the conditions: either you will not receive benefits from us, and we are now talking about benefits for oil, which they have received for several years in a row. And, indeed, receiving oil at domestic Russian prices gave them a margin and the opportunity to earn many billions of dollars into the economy over the years.
Experts are already saying that if these benefits do not exist, Belarus will lose 2 billion dollars within 3-10 years. This is a significant blow for the closed economy of Belarus,” she noted.
According to the ex-official, Vladimir Putin needs the integration of Belarus in order to remain the first person in the state.
“Why did Putin do this now? Because he already has a deadline for serving as president, and he would have to come up with some option on how to get out of this state without violating, or by making appropriate changes to the Constitution of the Russian Federation, and remain a tsar, a king, and how would he He didn’t call himself, but he was the first person of the state.
The second is the propaganda euphoria from “Crimea is ours.” They raised a wave, raised emotions, and indeed, this euphoria, this neo-imperialism surged in people, these emotions need to be supported with something.
Over the past 4 years, we have seen that “Crimea is Ours” does not work, that there are a lot of costs, the Kerch Bridge against the backdrop of a worsening economic situation, with pensions, a lot of protests, and so on. And now “Belarus is ours,” “Belarus is ours,” which has really lost part of its sovereignty,” the expert added.
At the same time, Vereshchuk praised Lukashenko for his economic duplicity, which allows him to earn at the expense of Ukraine.
“Of course, you can accuse him (Lukashenko – editor’s note) of the benefits that Belarus is now receiving, having managed to get its bearings. They banned direct flights to Russia, everyone flies by air, and hundreds of new flights were opened.
Oil, well, to be honest, we also get Belarusian oil from Russia. Our gasoline filling stations are from Belarus. Well, shrimp and so on. That is, he managed to use the situation, but not to our detriment,” she concluded.
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