Zmitser Bandarenka: Lukashenka’s System Has Gone Out Of Control

Today we are witnessing a "cleansing" of power a la Erdoğan.

Coordinator of the European Belarus civil campaign Zmitser Bandarenka said that in his interview to Charter97.org.

– Natallia Kachanava made it clear after the meeting with Lukashenka that his administration would be reduced by 30%. In your opinion, what is the reason for that decision?

– The planned reduction of Lukashenka's administration, in my opinion, flows organically from the process, which began on December 5, 2016, when the dictator dismissed the head of his administration Aliaksandr Kasinets and his deputy Kanstantsin Martynetski.

Today we are witnessing a mini-Turkish, mini Erdoğan-like "cleansing" of power in Belarus.

Administration of Lukashenka plays a key role in our totalitarian state. It's like the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the USSR in Soviet times – the body, which manages all the aspects of life in the current political system.

And such a large-scale reduction, "cleansing" in Lukashenka's administration will lead to very serious consequences for the functioning of the whole mechanism of power.

The dictator appointed Natallia Kachanava to the key position in the state. Former head of state-legal department of Lukashenka’s administration Aliaksandr Plaskavitski made a derogatory remark about her, saying that her organizational and intellectual abilities were not particularly bright. Kachanava’s appointment indicates that Lukashenka now feels it’s more important for him just to sit it out and to protect himself from the threat, posed by the people of his administration.

– Can we take it that he is afraid of "palace coup"?

– Yes, we can. And obviously, he supposes that Russia is behind this coup. Then in December, he changed all the leaders of key structures, law enforcement agencies and the administration after he visited Putin in late November, which indicated that coup threat had not disappeared in Lukashenka’s imagining.

I want to remind that the former head of Lukashenka's administration Kasinets was the head of Vitsebsk region for a long time, and Russian Gazprom began to feel at home in Vitebsk during his reign. Vitsebsk actually turned into its fiefdom. We know that this structure held global nation-wide corporate parties there, and its officials believed that Vitsebsk was almost a Russian city.

Apparently, Lukashenka has received information that the Russian influence on the head of his administration was very strong, and now he will "clean out" those people, who used to center around the previous leadership.

– What might be the consequences for Belarus in this situation?

– We can say that now Lukashenka’s system has simply gone out of control. I repeat again, that administration plays the key role in the dictator’s system. And such a radical change in its management will inevitably affect the functioning of the power structure and the lives of citizens.

One would welcome the reduction officials, but first the power must declare a change of economic policy. But it is not happening. The dictator actually agreed to ruin the entire vertical of power for the sake of his personal safety. And it has been announced that there will be cuts in other departments.

Events will develop rapidly, because the system of control, which has been built for the last 20 years, has shown its inefficiency both in the economy and in security issues.