Zbignew Brzezinski spoke of Belarus at GLOBSEC

Changes in Belarus in its turn will lead to changes in Russia.

On 18-20 April in Bratislava the GLOBSEC forum is taking place – a conference on the issues of global security. On the first day of the forum a well-known geo-politician, adviser to the US president Jimmy Carter on national security Zbignew Brzezinski.

In his speech he repeatedly said that in Belarus there is the most repressive regime from all the countries of the European Union’s neighborhood.

Brzezinski also replied to a question of the charter97.org web-site’s editor-in-chief Natalla Radzina, who asked:

- In one of the recent interviews you said that European Union needs a strategy on Belarus and Ukraine. What kind of strategy on Belarus could it be? Lukashenko already rules for nearly 20 years. In my view European strategy is weak and EU is again trying to have a dialogue with the last dictator in Europe.

Zbignew Brzezinski answered:

- I don't object to a dialogue but the purpose of a dialogue has to be strategic. That is to say that it has to be designed to make it clear that the interests of the Belarusian and Ukranian people will best be served by those countries meeting the standards of Europe and becoming part of Europe. That in turn will facilitate and accelerate a similar process in Russia, and Russia in Europe would be an important European country and probably more important and potentially more wealthy and stable country than it is in a setting in which its former Asian republics are resentful of Russia's attempts to limit their genuine independence. And in which the future of the Far Eastern parts of Russia will become uncertain because Russia not being part of Europe will have increasing vulnarability. So the West is in a good position to argue constructively and positively that it is the interest of Belarus and Ukraine and potentialy of the Russian people for these countries to meet the fundamental standards of Europe, and they are European countries culturally, and therefore to become part of a larger enterprise which will be in their interest.

Earlier in his speech at the conference Zbignew Brzezinski noted that if Russia does not become a part of the West, then it risks to become China’s satellite.