The West is using the so-called opposition coordination council and former Belarusian presidential candidate Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, who fled to Lithuania, to escalate the protests in Minsk.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov stated this today, speaking at the youth forum “Territory of Meanings,” a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
“Western countries, and above all the United States, are trying to present this council as a legitimate negotiating partner of the government. They are unhappy that the protests are gradually fading away. At least they don’t become more widespread and loud. And they are unhappy that these protests are peaceful after a surge of violence in the first couple of days.
There is currently no evidence that these protests are being carried out using force. And some Belarusian oppositionists who live in the West and from there are trying to influence what is happening in their country really want it to be different - to provoke a reaction from the Belarusian security forces, who are now not bothering anyone. In general, a repetition of the Ukrainian scenario. We consider this criminal,” Lavrov said.
According to him, Russia has questions about how the coordination council was formed, since “there are many people there who are known for their negative attitude towards the development of the Union State of Belarus and the Russian Federation.”
The minister recalled that a program appeared on Svetlana Tikhanovskaya’s website, which indicated withdrawal from the EAEU, CSTO, Union State, entry not only into the European Union, but also into NATO, Belarusianization of the country through the artificial introduction of the Belarusian language and the displacement of Russian.
“Tikhanovskaya left, announcing that she wanted to take care of family affairs. Apparently she was not allowed to calm down, and she began to make political statements. Moreover, they are so tough, demanding that strikes, walkouts, and protests continue. It is characteristic that she increasingly makes her statements not in Russian and Belarusian, but in English. That is, the main addressee is in a western direction.
Perhaps the purpose of this move is to prevent Western countries from calming down and to convince them to continue to mess with this situation. I also know that not everyone in the West agrees with this approach. We see public statements from Lithuania and Poland that directly demand regime change in Belarus, collecting money for workers who succumbed to pressure and declared themselves strikers. This is sad,” Lavrov said.