Lukashenka Becomes Totally Obsolete
34- 27.12.2017, 17:43
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The results of the year 2017.
— The outgoing year was very dynamic, and that is its main difference from the previous years. After the long socio-political lull, some bright events happened in 2017, — coordinator of the “European Belarus” civil campaign Dzmitry Bandarenka told in an interview for the Charter97.org.
— What events of the outgoing year would you like to point out?
— Of course, these are the Outraged Belarusians’ Marches, held all over the country. The result of those protests was that the authorities were forced to partially cancel the “social parasites decree”, and even returned money to some. The introduction of the Decree #3 was postponed till 2019. This was our common victory.
I would also point out the Russia-Belarus military drills West-2017, which were held for the time period of several months. We cannot limit the whole drills to the September stage.
The virtual tongue-in-cheek response of Belarusians to the West-2017 drills pleased me — this was the appearance of the Veišnoria meme. I believe this was a total defeat of the Belarusian and Russian force structures in the hybrid war. They obviously wanted quite a different result.
I would also like to point out the events which were definitely connected with the popular protests — the “patriots case” and the campaign called “Frau A.”, held by the Lukashenka media. This activity was also aimed at the demolition of the “European Belarus” civil campaign and the website Charter97.org.
The authorities made a series of propagandistic movies, having involved the newspaper Soviet Byelorussia, against the leaders of the Belarusian National Congress, the “European Belarus” and the Editor-in-Chief of the Charter97.org. The attack was led both at the territory of our country and abroad. Dozens of activists of the “European Belarus” were arrested, the “EB” and the Charter’97 were deprived of their office premises in Warsaw, there were attempts to deprive the website Charter97.org of financing. However, the attacks of the Belarusian special services failed.
It is also very good that the authorities had to terminate the “patriots case” and dozens of young people were released from jail.
Another important event that will be felt, I'm not afraid of this word, over the centuries — the discovery of the grave of the leaders of the uprising of 1863-1864 in Vilnius. The body of Zygmunt Serakovsky was found, work is under way to confirm that the body of Kastus Kalinovsky and other leaders of the uprising have been found. This is a very important event, because the Lithuanian capital Vilnius is still a cultural Mecca for Belarusians. It is especially important for us that this city will become a place where Belarusians can come and bow to the heroes of the famous insurrection. I would like to thank the professional historians, archaeologists, the people who participates in these works, those who helped them financially.
— You have noted such an important cultural and historical event as the discovery of burial of the leaders of the insurrection of 1863. In 2018, we are going to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the BPR proclamation. How do you see this important for Belarus year?
— Every year, the nation, or some certain people, have to prove that they are worthy of something. Belarusians have a great opportunity to express themselves in 2018. The date is very important, but the question how Belarusians will show themselves still remains open. I hope that the 100th anniversary of the proclamation of the BPR, the restoration of our Independence, will become a decent event.
— What key international events of the year 2017 would you like to stress?
— An important event occurred at our southern neighbors — Ukrainians. The citizens of Ukraine received the long-awaited “visa-free” regime. Now Ukrainians can freely travel throughout Europe and other countries. This is a good example for Belarusians, which shows that nothing is done by itself, it is necessary to fight for dignity, rights and respect.
A frightening event was the conduct of the Russian military exercises. Some of them took place at the territory of Belarus, as an important strategic point in Europe. The danger of the maneuvers was that they passed from the Arctic Ocean to the Mediterranean Sea. These were hybrid exercises with the bombing of aircraft and missiles on “living targets”, as it was in Syria. The military maneuvers also took place at the territory of the “LNR” and “DNR”, Belarus, in the Western, Central and even Northern districts of Russia, in the Baltic Sea. Such exercises have not been conducted in our region, in Europe, for decades. This is a very dangerous phenomenon, given its scale.
Due to this phenomenon, the United States and Europe started to assess Russia very adequately. Despite all Trump's attempts to make friends with dictator Putin, the American political elite (including the Republican Party) insisted, somewhere, that the US president should switch on the mechanism of the new sanctions against Russia. The result of these measures will be clear in the first half of 2018. These are interrelated moments: the Russian Federation is trying to pursue an aggressive policy, with a very strong military component — and the US responds adequately to this.
The USA adequately react to North Korean maniac Kim Jong-un. My version is that the breakthrough in the field of missile and nuclear weapons has been reached by Pyongyang also with the help of Russia.
Another bright event is the fantastic growth of the bitcoin. In this process, everything was mixed: a breakthrough in technology and at the same time the behavior of financial speculators, as in the construction of the financial pyramid. On the one hand — the bitcoin has become a symbol of progress, and on the other — people will be people. Somewhere, humanity does not know how to react to these processes. Everything changes very radically and it is necessary to adapt to this.
— What would you like to wish Belarusians in 2018?
— Many say that today’s nomination of Putin as a presidential candidate is the last one, because he is very archaic. Even in Russia, which is obsessed with the imperial syndrom (we see this in the Crimeaisours moods), the youth and a considerable amount of the society do not perceive Putin. If Putin became archaic, what can we say about Lukashenka then?
Belarusians should believe what they hear in the queues, in public transport, about what they write on social networks and the Internet. Lukashenka cannot remain the leader of Belarus, his time has long passed. We need to really look at things: a gang that has been in power for a long time, actually fooled people for a long time, using state television, repression and the Soviet Byelorussia.
The meaning of these actions was the construction of luxury cottages and residences. Now we see all this with the help of drones: how certain individuals “live” in a country that remains in a difficult economic situation, where most people live poorly. For their own purposes, they use various decrees directed against the unemployed, entrepreneurs, other layers of the population. All this is done only to serve selfish interests.
And then Belarusians should understand that we are not the first, we are not the last. We must put an end to the Belarusian dictatorship. What is happening is the agony of the regime. We must believe in our own strength and be solidary, be prepared for the fact that this dictatorship is already falling and it is necessary to help it to cease to exist. We must build a European Belarus and start living as normal people.