RTR Vesti: Political chameleon quitting the stage

Russia 1 TV channel (also known as RTR) has joined the information war. Vesti news programme showed a hard-hitting story about Alyaksandr Lukashenka.

It tells how President of Georgia Mikheil Saakashvili tried to present the world his analyses of Russia’s foreign and domestic policy. Saakashvili was shown on Belarusian TV.

Belarusian journalists were making their exclusive materials in Saakashvili’s office. The event could have been considered an internal affair of Minsk and Tbilisi if the Georgian president hadn’t focused on Russia for seven out of twelve minutes of the interview. Saakashvili gave his won version of the Russian-Georgian relations:

– You know, it’s difficult to understand what they want. We have always wanted to meet half-way. But they wanted more if we made concessions, the more we made the more they wanted.

The interview with Saakashvili was broadcasted on the state-owned channel of Belarus, Russia’s ally. A decision had only political motives. Lukashenka was well-informed about Russia’s position.

“Now, Russia’s enemy arrives in Minsk and continues slandering and humiliating Russia,” Vladimir Zhirinovsky, the leader of the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia, resents. “Who does help him? Alyaksandr Lukashenka. I was there and called to vote for Lukashenka. I did it. Moscow has always helped them. That’s what we have as a reward. Lukashenka demonstrates his ingratitude for all good things we did for him.”

Belarus has elections in six months. Lukashenka seems to be burning his bridges. But wading is unlikely to be easy this time. The times have passed when Lukashenka got cheap Russian gas and invested 50 billion dollars in economy. Moscow doesn’t want this to go on. The real integration is offered. However, it is difficult to accept it giving the finger behind his back and having something up in his sleeve.