“Nezavisimaya gazeta”: Opposition’s record-breaker is Sannikov

If the election could be held in Belarus without rigging, Lukashenka would lose his position.

As “Nezavisimaya gazeta” writes, Alyaksandr Lukashenka was the first out of 17 candidates who had collected the necessary number of votes in his support for nomination as a candidate for presidency. It has been stated by the head of his initiative group Alyaksandr Radzkou.

For adequate understanding of this information one should know that the head of the initiative group of Lukashenka holds the position of Education Minister, and is also the head of a pro-regime “Belaya Rus” public association. It should be added that Andrei Sannikov, a former deputy minister of Foreign Affairs, is a record-breaker among opposition candidates so far. A number of signatures in his support several days ago exceeded 20,000.

Despite of the status of the public association, “Belaya Rus” is in fact a party in power. It was created in 2008 on the initiative of top officials in the form of order, and it united firstly officials. As it is known from the words of its “involuntary” members, they are regularly given tasks to increase the number of members. The denial to be a member of the organization in fact means a discharge.

To observe all the outward signs of democracy, but to keep the power is the main goal of Lukashenka. Otherwise he will face the role of illegitimate head of the state with all the political and economic problems that come with it. The CEC chair Lidziya Yarmoshyna, by the way, has already reacted to the statement of “a source in the Kremlin” that the Russian evaluation of the level of the Belarusian elections’ democratic character would be “adequate” this time. She found that to be an incident of pressure.

The Russian-Belarusian informational war has become a part of the informational space of Belarus thanks to a very active position of Moscow. Films “Godbatka” and loud statements of the Kremlin are discussed not only by politically active citizens and opposition representatives, but a man in the street as well. Even some independent experts dare to suppose that if the election in Belarus could be held without rigging the results, Lukashenka would lose his job.

Meanwhile the recent statements of Moscow leave no hopes for reconciliation to Lukashenka. And if Finance Minister of Russia Alexei Kudrin had been speaking about insolvency of the Belarusian economy frequently, the position of the State Duma which has supported the position of the Russian President on the Russian-Belarusian relations yesterday, is new information.