"It's Time To Reflect On What Is Happening In The Post-Soviet Space"
- 11.05.2025, 12:35
Some politicians are trying to "sit on two chairs".
Natalia Radina, editor-in-chief of the Charter97.org website, gave a great interview to YouTube channel of the well-known journalist Evgeny Kiselyov.
The Belarusian journalist told, among other things, about the attempts of some politicians in the post-Soviet space to "sit on two chairs":
- On the one hand - they support Ukraine. Some in words, some in humanitarian aid, maybe some components for weapons, some in arms. However, they are actively cooperating with Putin, helping him and Lukashenko to circumvent Western sanctions. We know all these schemes very well. Now they are going to parade a war criminal. And something reminds me of that.
We started the conversation with the formation of Lukashenko's dictatorship. Yeltsin had the same unprincipled behavior towards Belarus. Georgia behaved the same way. Democrat Mikhail Saakashvili, having come to power as a result of the "Rose Revolution", began to actively cooperate with dictator Lukashenko. I can say the same about democrats Viktor Yushchenko and Yulia Tymoshenko, who came to power in Ukraine as a result of the Orange Revolution, and I can say the same about Peter Poroshenko, who came after Euromaidan. Who was the first person he invited to his inauguration? Lukashenko. I was just shocked, I did not expect it. I know Petro Alekseevich, we met in Vilnius on the eve of his inauguration. Then he did not say a good word about the dictator, I will not repeat the epithets he used to award him. And after the Euromaidan, where Belarusian Mikhail Zhiznevsky died, in which many representatives of the Belarusian opposition participated, the dictator was invited to Kiev for the inauguration of the president.
And Vladimir Zelensky continued active cooperation with Lukashenko. Even after the 2020 protests, Ukraine did not impose economic sanctions against the regime; on the contrary, 2020-2021 was a record year in trade turnover between the two countries. Ukraine actively purchased Belarusian oil products made from Russian oil. Only in 2022, when missiles were flying from the territory of Belarus and Russian soldiers were marching, did Ukraine realize who Lukashenko was.
So the unscrupulousness of these politicians, who are not always dictators (Tokayev is an autocrat, Aliyev is still a dictator, I have many friends from Azerbaijan who also went through prisons), can end badly for them.
Should we call things by their names? It is time to think about what is happening in the post-Soviet space. Why are the emerging democracies sitting on two chairs? This leads to catastrophic consequences. We, democrats in the post-Soviet space, need real solidarity.