Mikalai Statkevich: We Can And Must Fight For Our Independence

There should not be any foreign troops in Belarus at all.

"Russia will learn in our land, how to attack and fight with NATO," – Lieutenant-Colonel Mikalai Statkevich, one of the leaders of the Belarusian National Congress, said that in an interview to Radio Svaboda.

Mikalai Statkevich considers the West-2017 maneuvers to be very dangerous for Belarus and defines two groups of reasons for this danger:

– Firstly, we are drawn into a conflict, into Putin's hybrid conflict with the West and a hybrid war with Ukraine. Russia will learn in our land, how to attack and fight with NATO and, possibly, with Ukraine. In fact, we are already becoming its accomplice in this conflict.

At the same time, they can, without asking, draw us into a heated conflict, into some kind of provocation. We are actually losing sovereignty regarding such an important issue as peace and security. And these are key issues for any nation, for any state.

But we are becoming just an object here – it is a great danger. I do not think that anyone in his right mind, either from Russia or NATO, will want to fight, but, on the other hand, no one wants to give in. And these steps of "big men" against each other, can lead to unforeseen terrible consequences.

For me, these maneuvers are a continuation of the hybrid conflict, when Putin frightens the West. The Russian ruling elites have such an illusion that the West, Europeans are just depraved, well-fed Sybarites who will never risk their safety. But if it comes to a certain point, then the state institutions will simply react and it will be quite a thing, there is such a danger. Therefore – please, do prepare for a war, but not on our land.

The second group of threats is connected with the most internal policy of Russia. Russian ruling elites very often use external conflicts to solve internal problems.

The election of the Russian president are coming, one must raise the rating, so the "achievements" of the past years are in great demand. The Russian society is very traumatized by the collapse of their empire, the loss of land, which they consider their own, because once they were conquered allegedly forever.

Therefore, any step towards the return of these lands is welcomed. Let's recall the euphoria that arose in Russia after the first events in Ukraine, in the Crimea – there is a temptation to repeat it.

Therefore, when the troops of the country that has experience of military operations in seizing the land of its neighbors, appear here, it cannot but inflame the situation. Moreover, the Belarusian regime is under full economic control of Russia, and Russian special services operate here everywhere and nobody gets in their way.

The most popular politician among the Belarusian law enforcement agencies is Putin, not Lukashenka. And all this creates a threat that as a result military bases will stay, that then it might end with annexation. Let us recall the history of the Baltic countries. In 1939, the USSR thrusted its bases on them, and in 1940, Soviet tanks moved out of those bases, and the independence of the Baltic countries ended.

– And what does your experience of the former serviceman suggest? Do you believe that much more than 3,000 Russian military men are taking part in the maneuvers?

– Yes, Russia has traditionally understated the number of its participants in the maneuvers and uses them outside the framework that the OSCE allows, as it deems appropriate.

And now the observers will be shown only what is needed, so I admit that there will be much more of the Russian troops, indeed.

But incomparably more troops will prepare and move near the borders of Belarus. The borders of Latvia, Estonia, Ukraine.

That is, a disaster may happen, provocations are also not excluded: for example, the movement of a large mass of troops towards a certain border. The Belarusian-Ukrainian one, or the Belarusian-Polish one, or the Lithuanian one. Or aircrafts may fly to neighboring territories – everything is possible.

Undoubtedly, the troops must learn to fight, and the Belarusian ones, too. But the Belarusian National Congress suggests prohibiting the presence of foreign troops on the territory of Belarus. Well, if peacekeepers are training, you can invite them from abroad, but a maximum of a unit of peacekeepers. And such a ban must be enshrined in the law.

We do not need foreign troops here, we have, as they say, fought enough. Since the last war, we have been afraid to say how much we lost, it was every third one. We have had enough foreign wars, we can and must fight only for our land, for our independence, and not to play these games, which at first seem to be hybrid ones, and then can become more than being just hybrid.