Half scorn half fear. Kremlin propagandists warn against 'Ukrainian scenario' in Belarus


The deputy director of the Russian Institute of CIS Countries warns against a ‘coup attempt’ and ‘bloody chaos’ in Minsk.

Ukrainians and Belarusians ‘concoct’ their languages and history

“You cannot build a separate Belarus with Russian mentality as its cornerstone. One should explain why we are different, why live separately, why we don’t unite into one state? One will have to create a separate nation.”

It is the very blueprint that the Belarusian authorities are implementing nowadays, says Igor Shishkin, the deputy director of the Institute of CIS Countries. He warns that this is a very dangerous concept, and stresses that it was used in Ukraine:

“When all [this] was just beginning in Ukraine, one had to ‘invent’ a separate Ukrainian nation with a separate Ukrainian language. The language was cooked up, so was the history.”

Dangerous ‘parochialism’

Russia hardly demands that Belarus should become its part. But not to lose it, the ‘big brother’ should really intensify integration processes :

If the Belarusian elite fails to advocate their interests in the common area and keeps developing its ‘separateness’ sooner or later the Ukrainian events will repeat themselves in Belarus, the Russian political scientist stated in a TV program aired by AnnaNews, a TV channel of Donbas separatists.

How ousted president Yanukovych supported his sworn enemy Yarosh  

According to Shishkin, the situation in Belarus resembles the period before the presidential elections in Ukraine. Viktor Yanukovych wanted to win right-wing politician Dmytro Yarosh in the second round (which was never held). And that is why he secretly backed him and turned a blind eye to ‘Banderovites’ training camps sponsored and instructed by the West’.

“Now, the same things are seen in Belarus. The authorities are flirting with [nationalists] who convinced Belarusians that they are not the Russians, but the victims of Russian occupation,” Shishkin says.

 ‘West-led bloody chaos’

If the process continues, and the West sends fighters from Ukraine [to Belarus], one can expect very serious events in November, [when the 2015 presidention election is scheduled – Belsat], he says.

Shishkin hopes that Lukashenka will manage to prevent a ‘coup attempt’ and ‘save Belarus from bloody chaos’.

“But if the nature of our integration processes fails to change, we will get a great number of such Russian-speaking Yaroshs who absolutely hate Russia ,” the deputy director of the Russian Institute of CIS Countries predicts.

Cez/MS, www.belsat.eu/en/

TWITTER