Famous personalities, the media and anonymous telegram channels have been actively commenting on the unexpected dismissal of Mikhail Babich and giving a description of the new Russian ambassador to Belarus Dmitry Mezentsev. Belsat.eu collected the most interesting estimates.
“Dmitry Mezentsev is a very thorough, non-conflicting, cautious and enterprising person. I have known him since 1991, he is the exact opposite of the former ambassador Mikhail Babich. The latter preferred to tackle everything with cavalry and rudeness. Mezentsev likes to envelop and seduce,” writes Alexei Venediktov, editor-in-chief of Ekho Moskvy radio.
“Babich has met with the Belarusian opposition. It is clear that a story was played out, when the Kremlin showed Lukashenka that if you, dude, do not come to terms with us, we will come to terms with your the opposition. ” We don’t care who, we don’t care who to give these oil subsidies that Russia provides to Belarus. This is a form of bribe to Lukashenka, the purchase of his loyalty, a very important addition to the Belarusian budget. And the Kremlin began to demonstrate Lukashenka that it was ready to replace … to help someone from Lukashenka’s enemies to come to power, which, of course, made Batka tense. He is the owner of this territory. He has been in power much longer than Putin,” said Yevgenia Albats, editor-in-chief of The New Times magazine, at Ekho Moskvy, recalling the analysis of Alexander Banov, editor-in-chief of Carnegie.ru.
She described the new ambassador Mezentsev as an “old Putin’s sidekick” whom he knew from his work in St. Petersburg in the 90s.
The telegram channel “Slavic Brotherhood” writes that Mezentsev is even more dangerous than his predecessor.
“At least he’s smarter. In addition, Mezentsev, appointed ambassador to Minsk, is an information operations specialist. His thesis was called “The Psychology of the Influence of the Mass Media on the Formation of the Political Attitudes of the Person”. He defended it in 1998 under Yeltsin. And judging by the topic, the person wrote it himself, he chose the topic himself. The sharp tone will be made smooth, but the official Minsk should not expect easy months,” the channel notes.
The Nezygar channel reports that Mezentsev was supposedly supported by the Kovalchuk oligarch brothers, the first deputy head of Putin’s administration, Sergei Kiriyenko, and the chairman of the Sberbank board, German Gref.
The telegram-channel “Belarusian Gambit” suggests that Babich allegedly coped with his task in Minsk. Babich, the channel notes, finally voiced the real numbers of Moscow’s support for Minsk, drew attention to the “Belarusianization” and “Western agents in Belarus”, and showed the public that Russia “does not unequivocally bet on Lukashenka”.
