Raman Jakauleuski: Lukashenka is afraid to go to Kyiv because of Putin

The dictator will not attend Poroshenko’s inauguration, since the president of the Russian Federation has not been invited.

Such an assumption made a political observer Raman Jakauleuski in an interview to the charter97.org web-site.

- Belarusian ruler has been invited to Petro Poroshenko’s inauguration, while the Russian president was not. Why?

- Because, unlike Vladimir Putin, Lukashenka does not openly speak of the illegitimacy of the incumbent authorities in Kyiv, and, even more so, congratulated Poroshenko, whom he knows personally. That is why it all looks decent and logical. But it should be pointed out here that for Lukashenka being present at the inauguration would be a chance to get personally acquainted with other heads of states as well as the United States vice-president Joseph Biden. We could say that by this Poroshenko made a pass to the Belarusian ruler. But there are serious doubts that Lukashenka will use it, because he looks at the Kremlin, which has not been invited and could not get invited with the fighting in Donetsk and Luhansk in the background. This is the psychological trap for the Belarusian ruler.

- Is the new Ukraine’s president interested in relations with the official Minsk at all? And if yes, how exactly?

- The thing is that Poroshenko will have to reach an agreement with Putin. For now it is not clear, on what conditions, because the current bloody combats in Ukraine do not contribute to unfreezing the relations between Kyiv and Moscow. Although we see that some steps are being made in the situation with Gazprom. As to Lukashenka, he will try to build bilateral relations with Kyiv in his own interests. How will this work? I think, with difficulties, considering that Belarus is tied to the Kremlin with a whole bunch of commitments. That is why Lukashenka is in a difficult situation. Also, it seems to me for some reason that Poroshenko’s interpersonal, I want to stress that, relations with Lukashenka will be better and more predictable than the one the Belarusian ruler had with Viktor Yanukovych.