Opinion: ‘But for Russia, there would be a different political system in Belarus’

The Collective Security Treaty Organization is a bloc of authoritarian states, which is not very effective in terms of security, Belarusian political analyst Pavel Usau said in Belsat TV program Hot Commentary.

“If we look what countries are the members of both EAEC ans CSTO, we will see that all of them are authoritarian countries or the states where the presidential power is strong (in case of Armenia, there is a strong party group). Therefore, they are trying to stand together. Of course, had it not been for Russia, a different system – a democratic one, like that of the EU – would have emerged in Belarus long time ago,” Usau stressed when commenting on the recent CSTO summit.

According to the analyst, Belarus cannot turn to the West, because they will not accept the authoritarian regime of Lukashenka.

“For Russia, the preservation of authoritarian regimes is the primary task, because they can create quasi post-Soviet projects on the basis of these political systems,” the expert believes.

In his opinion, the CSTO is hardly effective:

“There are collective rapid reaction forces, but they have never been involved in resolving disputes, even in the framework of the CSTO. This indicates that this formation does not work. And it does not work because all CSTO member states do not trust Russia. They believe that a closer integration in the field of security can result in Russia’s using it for depriving them of independence.”

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Belsat.eu