Alyaksandr Lukashenka visits a training ground, talks to the military and urges officers to teach ‘what is needed during a war’. Is Lukashenka doing a loyalty check? Or isn’t our peaceful country so peaceful as he always stated?
The head of state is going to take a closer look at the system of military education, remove ‘unnecessary things’ from curricula and think of introducing the part-time mode of study. In his opinion, the most important thing is the officers’ qualification, the lack of self-deception and the ability to share their experience with subordinates. Is it purely coincidental that Lukashenka has focused so much attention on the army?
“No one wants any war, but a war never asks, it can just come to us. To prevent it, the Belarusians have to prove to the world that they are able to defend themselves,” politician and former political prisoner Mikalai Statkevich said.
According to him, the Belarusian authorities’ effort to improve relations with the United States and the European Union is an attempt to keep a balance and weaken Russia’s influence. Belarusian president Alyaksandr Lukashenka might be conveying some messages to the West, but he is still ‘in the pocket of Putin’, the opposition politicial believes.
“The Belarusian economy is a lossmaking part of Russia’s economy; the Belarusian army is a branch of the Russian army; the entire Belarusian state – its ideology, spirit, language, culture – is a subdivision of the Russian state. He (Lukashenka) turned into this ‘branch’. Now Russia is in crisis, it is running out of money. If there is a lack of money, the main company may decide on closing down its branch. And what? The man has driven us into a situation from which there is no easy and quick way out. Taking into account his dependence, he can take only tiny steps, but do we actually have time to take them, to distance ourselves from this danger?” Statkevich wonders.
In his view, the future of Belarus will depend on the Belarusian people.
“Do not count on Lukashenka. This man has already done the worst that he could do for our independence. Perhaps, in the end, when he is between a rock and a hard place, he might take his billions and leave for Venezuela,” the former political prisoner says.
belsat.eu
