Russian State Duma member: “Russia may refuse to recognize elections in Belarus for the first time ever”

It will be a strong blow to Lukashenka’s regime, Russian experts suppose.

According to opinion poll held by Baltic Survey, the NTV documentaries, which were banned for airing in Belarus, have been watched by every seventh Belarusian and every third one knows their content. It gives a chance that the opposition will get much more at the elections than its current support rating of 25-30%, the Russian newspaper “Vedomosti” writes.

Ahead of the 2006 elections Alyaksandr Lukashenka had several meetings with president Vladimir Putin; he was awarded with the Order of Friendship by Patriarch Alexy; prime minister Mikhail Fradkov paid a visit to Minsk to give respects from Putin two weeks before the elections. Lukashenka doesn’t have such a support now, the Russian authorities show they got tired of him, Alexander Fadeev, the head of the department of Belarus at the CIS Countries Institute, says.

Russia’s position can mobilize the non-system opposition and all those dissatisfied with Lukashenka’s economic policy, the expert says.

The Kremlin’s stance towards the Belarusian elections will decide the outcome of the conflict with Lukashenka: if the conflict is developing Russia won’t intervene and render direct support to the opposition, but it may refuse to recognize the election results for the first time ever, Sergey Markov, a representative of the United Russia Party in the State Duma, forecasts.

Even such possible step of Russia as turning attention to incompliance of the voting process with democratic norms will be a strong blow to Lukashenka, Fadeev supposes.