“Independent newspaper”: Whom will Russia support at the presidential elections in Belarus?

Representatives of Belarusian opposition announced, that they managed to agree on joint activities during the forthcoming presidential campaign.

The Russian “Independent newspaper” writes that representatives of political parties and public movements of Belarus signed on Tuesday the document on coordination of actions “on a range of directions”, as it was told by press-services of organizations-participants. Among those who signed the document are – the United Civil party, public campaign “Tell the Truth”, Belarusian left party “Fair world”, Women’s party “Hope”, “European Coalition”, Belarusian Social Democratic party “Hramada”. The document was signed by the ultra right party Belarusian national front (BNF) with a proviso. Representatives of the movement “For Freedom”, which is headed by ex-candidate for presidency Alyaksandr Milinkevich, did not participate in the meeting and accordingly have not signed the document yet. And the leader of “European Belarus” campaign Andrei Sannikov has not any decision concerning the signing of the document yet. He, as his representative explained, will take his decision in the nearest future.

As “IN” wrote earlier, democratic powers of Belarus, as representatives of opposition parties call themselves, have been trying to agree on a common strategy at the coming presidential elections, that gave positive results in the last presidential campaign. We would like to remind, that in the year of 2006, abandoning their own ambitions, leaders of all opposition parties worked for a common candidate Alyaksandr Milinkevich. As a result a not widely known politician secured the support of about 30% of electorate, as nongovernmental sociologists stated. The result of opposition solidarity was consolidation of the society, which clearly understood, that there were Lukashenka and his opponent. A display of this consolidation became protest actions of Belarusians that had unprecedented scale neither before, nor after that. It is enough to remember, that the encampment at the central city square in authoritarian Belarus stood bravely about a week. The authorities made conclusions and, as some experts state, their efforts in the period between elections were directed for not letting the unity of opposition.

In connection with the above said events, oppositionists evaluate the present signing of the document quite highly. “It is the first joint step, and I think that we still have a chance to arrive at one common candidate at the coming elections”, –an experienced oppositionist, the Chairman of the United Civil Party (UCP) Anatol Lyabedzka commented the situation to “IN”.

It is interesting, that one of the occasions of disagreements within the opposition was the relation to Russia. The day before, on Monday, BNF party presented the Manifest about national interests’ defense. The document says that not only regime of Lukashenka presents the threat to national safety, but the highest leaders of Russia as well. In this connection BNF calls upon all democratic powers of the country to unite in the struggle not only against Lukashenka, but against Russia as well.

Andrei Sannikov, who joined actively the presidential campaign, reacted promptly to this statement. In his statement he called the BNF manifest “absurd”. According to his opinion, the changed relation of Russia’s leaders towards Lukashenka – is a chance to get rid of dictatorship, which Belarus should to use. He expressed confidence, that neither political party will sign the offered manifest. We would like to remind, that in programs of all political powers of Belarus there is a marked readiness to establish relations of partnership with the West, as well as with the East. Moreover, this summer, when the relationship of Moscow and Minsk worsened dramatically, representatives of many opposition parties did not conceal, that they were ready to set forth the candidate, on whom Kremlin will agree to stake. As one can conclude from publications in Mass media, the most popular pre-election topic in Belarus is “whom will Moscow support”. In this connection one names the present prime-minister Siarhei Sidorski, Andrei Sannikov, and Alyaksandr Kazulin, ex-candidate for presidency at the last elections, who is serving his sentence for his political activity, – The local public and Mass media connect it namely with the appearance of interview with Kazulin on NTV.