Experts: Lukashenka will not hold power

Russia continues to comment on Vladimir's Putin visit to Minsk.

Changes in the Belarusian-Russian relations are possible only after a serious transformation of the current “Belarusian model”, Belarusian economist Pr Syarhei Lyabetski told a correspondent of Regnum news agency on June 4 commenting on Russian president's visit to Minsk.

Vladimir Putin paid a visit to Belarus  on May 31- June 1. It was his first foreign visit as the president. Some experts said the first country visited by Putin in his new status would be Putin's highest foreign policy priority during his presidential term.

On May 24, ahead of the visit, Alyaksandr Lukashenka ordered Belarusian MFA chief Syarhei Martynau to prepare proposals regarding new lines of Belarus-Russia cooperation. Earlier, on May 7, Alyaksandr Lukashenka ordered Belarusian PM Mikhail Myasnikovich to work out strategic directions for the country's development and cooperation with Russia. “We need to prepare all directions, not only those based on the results of the cooperation with the Russian Federation. We need new directions, new proposals that will allow to build a long-term political course,” Lukashenka said.

A number of experts think Putin and Lukashenka did not discuss new approaches and new directions of the bilateral cooperation – they talked about old problems, old approaches and traditional instruments. Professor Lyabetski noted nothing new in the relations between Moscow and Minsk after Putin's return as president  or after the visit on May 31- June 1. The professor thinks all things noticed by politologists, economists and other experts fall within traditional relation patterns tested by the Kremlin earlier.

“Belarus-created system is unable to develop,” Lyabetski notes. “Its founder understands any real reforms will lead to transformation to another system where the key figures of the previous one will not be preserved.”

A joint statement by the presidents of Russia and Belarus on strategic cooperation was signed  on May 31 following the talks. The Russian president left Minsk for Germany on June 1.