In Minsk, the helpful “Father’s expert” received a kick from Father’s vertical
The Department of Justice of the Minsk City Executive Committee refused to register the public association “United Fatherland”. Basically, nothing new. Belarusian officials really do not like to register civil society structures that have at least some relation to politics.
The initiators of the creation of public associations can be harassed, finding new excuses each time, for years. The latest example of this is the public association “Immortal Regiment,” which has been unable to get through bureaucratic formalities for three years now.
The difference between what happened to the “United Fatherland”, which the Belarusian liberal-nationalist media calls “pro-Russian”, is that its leader turned out to be the odious politician Dmitry Belyakov, who now does not leave the talk show studios of various Russian TV channels, justifying absolutely everything with the fanaticism of the Red Guards. What is Lukashenko doing?
In Belarus itself, Belyakov is known for the “Infospetsnaz” project, which is engaged in the glorification of Lukashenko and does not disdain anything in this matter. “Pro-Russianism” of the “United Fatherland” is another myth of the Zmagars and a mask for the Russian audience.
In Belarus, they prefer to call themselves “pro-union”; they like to talk about evil Russian oligarchs and compradors who seized power, dreaming of extending the Belarusian model of governance (possibly together with Lukashenko himself) to the whole of Russia, and even the post-Soviet space.
On Wednesday, an event occurred that was expected by many, but not by Belyakov himself. The ship of his “United Fatherland”, following a course parallel to reality, ran into this very reality at full speed. The organization, which was planned to be transformed into a party, and whose other leader, Andrei Ivanov, had already spoken about epoch-making plans for holding an “all-Union referendum” on “recreating a single union state,” could not even pass the very first stage - registration of a regional structure in the capital.
By refusing, the Belarusian authorities simply gave the overly active, initiative and self-important activists a kick, ordering them to know their place. Judging by Belyakov's reaction, he did not understand the hint.
The activist spread an emotional statement on social networks, which boils down to the fact that the Minsk City Executive Committee is inhabited by enemies who “are doing everything to further increase the degree of civil conflict”, “strangling patriots” and “cutting down the good initiatives of citizens by refusing to register public associations of a patriotic nature." According to Belyakov, malicious officials are doing this contrary to Lukashenko’s instructions to intensify party building and public dialogue.
The thesis about bad boyars and a good tsar is not new, but it is not applicable to the conditions of Belarusian absolutism. In principle, officials at the level of the justice department of the Minsk City Executive Committee in Belarus cannot make independent decisions of a political nature. All such decisions are made several floors higher in the power pyramid.
Now Belyakov, of course, can fulfill the promises he made today and go to court, write a letter to Lukashenko, appeal to the Ministry of Justice and initiate parliamentary requests. But he is unlikely to achieve the desired result. I don’t know whether he sincerely believed that the Belarusian authorities needed him as a party leader or whether he received any promises from someone from the top government. Promising does not mean getting married, and in the Belarusian state the price of promises tends to zero. I even feel sorry for the naive activist.
By throwing a public hysteria and thus going against the system, Belyakov made a completely wrong move. Having relied on hyper-loyalty to the authorities, all he had to do was adhere to it, and not try to overcome the Minsk City Executive Committee on the apparatus field. The right move was to quietly accept the unsubscribe and go to the curators or look for ways out at higher levels of power, where such submission could be assessed and consent to registration.
Instead, Belyakov demonstrated his emotional instability and uncontrollability. Most likely this was a fatal mistake. It will be very interesting to see his future career path and the evolution of his views.
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