Paval Sevyarynets: There Are People Ready To Defend Belarus

It will be more difficult for Russia to deal with the Belarusian people than with Lukashenka.

"Of course, Russia would want Belarus to be more easy to manipulate, to make it just part of its imperia," – the co-chairman of organizing committee of the Belarusian Christian Democracy party Paval Sevyarynets said to Radio Racyja while commenting on further deterioration of relations between the leaders of Belarus and Russia.

According to the Belarusian politician, Russia was quite happy with Lukashenka for a while. There have been certain difficulties recently, but despite all the rhetoric, the military cooperation, the protection of Russian interests and the dominance of the Russian language continue. No drastic steps to get rid of Russian influence have been made.

"The most important thing that Lukashenka has not yet done – he has not given the freedom to the people of Belarus: the freedom to speak Belarusian, defend their interests, to choose their own power. Therefore, in this situation, he defends himself, he wants to bargain preferences from Russia and to keep the power as long as possible. I would not think that Lukashenka will defend the independence together with his power, as actually Lukashenka has already handed over all the levers of independence," – Paval Sevyarynets said.

"A lot of people in the system created by Lukashenka himself, – in the army, police, intelligence services, are pro-Russian and pro-Kremlin. It's not a secret," – Paval Sevyarynets thinks. And in a situation where Vladimir Putin decides to get rid of Lukashenka, the latter will be screwed and, and the problem will be solved within days. However, it will be more difficult for Russia to deal with the Belarusian people. "No matter how weak our civil society seems to be, there are people who are ready to defend Belarus. And they are our white hope," – Paval Sevyarynets stressed.