Lukashenka Miscalculated: Boomerang Returned To Him

Migration blackmail has become a time bomb for the dictator.

The newspaper Sloboden Pechat from Skopje published an article about the migration crisis at the borders of Belarus and the EU.

Based on the assessments of Western and Belarusian experts (in the article, in particular, Yahor Lebiadok is cited), Sloboden Pechat believes that Lukashenka miscalculated in his attempt to outwit the EU, and the tough (and even cruel) reaction of Latvia, Lithuania and, above all, Poland became a complete surprise to him. In his game with migrants, Lukashenka launched a boomerang that will return to him: migrants who set out on the road risk settling in Belarus, because the EU countries will not accept them, and official Minsk will not be able to send thousands (maybe tens of thousands) of people to their homeland. A terrible humanitarian catastrophe could happen on the border, and in Belarus itself, dissatisfaction with the regime, which actually opened the country to illegal immigrants from Africa and the Middle East, will increase.

Belarusian-German historian Alexander Fridman explained why the publication of a Macedonian newspaper is interesting.

Sloboden Print is the largest daily newspaper in North Macedonia. It is owned by the Belgrade-based Adria Media Group, which in turn is owned by the German publisher Gruner + Jahr.

In 2015, North Macedonia found itself at the epicenter of the migration crisis. The Balkan route ran through the former Yugoslav republic, along which Syrian and Afghan refugees traveled to the EU. They knew about the migration crisis in Macedonia firsthand: Skopje actively cooperated with Vienna and Berlin, helping to end the use of the Balkan route and eventually gaining an influential patron in the person of Angela Merkel. North Macedonia joined NATO in 2020, and is one of the main candidates for EU membership.

Democratic Macedonia has taken advantage of the European refugee crisis that has fallen on its head to strengthen its position in Europe. And what about authoritarian Belarus, which provoked the migration crisis?