"Lukashenka Has a Position like Zugzwang in Chess"

The Belarusians now have a unique opportunity.

Events in Belarus are a lot like biathlon. In this sport, you need to be able to run fast and shoot accurately. “We, as biathletes, seem to have stopped now, and, in order not to earn penalty circles, as in August and early autumn, we held our breath,” a professional businessman, director of CJSC Prosto Management Company Aliaksandr Malashka, told Salidarnasts.

- August was unexpected for me in many ways. Everything that started with the election campaign changed my idea of Belarusians every day.

After the elections, when people began to gather for the marches, I had a feeling of celebration.

- Wasn't it scary?

- It was not that scary but rather natural. In fact, everything that began to happen openly on the part of the authorities since August has always happened here. It's just that the majority did not face this and thought that this is not possible.

But if the authorities did not stop the cruelty with which they began, did not stop after three days, then people could possibly have crossed some boundaries. There was a movement to give a decisive rebuff.

- Will the protests resume?

- So they did not stop. What is happening now is the growing up of us Belarusians as a nation. People "went underground," became "partisans." And it's just amazing how creative Belarusians are. If they are pressed in one place — they come up with something new. And the authorities again have to run and plug the holes.

- What is fraught with the state of the underground?

- If you bend a branch for a long time, it will break and give in the teeth. The post-election situation is similar to the biathlon. You can win there if you run fast and shoot accurately.

But in order to shoot, it is very important to stop, hold your breath, listen to your heartbeat. Then it is possible to conquer the target.

We also ran, but now we stopped before the shot, and in order not to earn penalties, as it was in the summer, then in the fall, we held our breath. After all, the finish line does not move away anywhere, it stands still.

- When will we see this finish after all, according to your forecasts?

- I think that interesting events will begin in May, and around June-July, big changes may occur. I have such feelings based on what I see.

Putin and Lukashenka are repeating last year's mistake again - they do not want to take Belarusians into account when discussing our fate. And the Belarusians are not what they used to think about.

- Lately, there has been a lot of talk about the changes associated with the loss of sovereignty.

- Putin is the only person who can now hedge and save Lukashenka. Therefore, in the near future, all roadmaps will be signed, no matter how many there are.

Last time, at the end of 2019, Putin proposed to create a “union state” with the allocation of some honorary post to Lukashenka, and he categorically refused this. Now the ruler, I think, will not only agree but will ask for it himself.

Will we become "Smolensk Region-2"? Until last year, it was very beneficial for Putin, today it is far from the case. Today Belarus and everything that happens in our country, including the ruler, is an acid asset. It is not profitable for them to support Lukashenka for a long time; in general, this whole topic about strong friendship with Russia remained beneficial only for one person.

But he has a position that is called zugzwang in chess. Every step, everything he does, puts him in a worse position. The tougher he is, the more he issues crazy laws, the faster he does not even cut the branch on which he sits, but uproots the forest that he planted himself.

With each event, the consciousness of people also changes more and more. They are sent to jail, repressed... That is, the authorities continue to bend the same branch, and it will break sooner or later.

I think that they will not have time to go too far in building the "union state."

- What will stop them?

- There is a good anecdote. A man has a flat tire near an insane asylum. He began to change it, and the bolts fell into the storm drain. Well, he thinks, that's, how to drive? A madman stands behind the bars and says: man, what are you nervous about, unscrew a bolt from each wheel, insert it, you will reach the store, buy new ones, and screw them in. The man was surprised: "How did you come up with it?" "I'm crazy, but not a fool."

Vladimir Vladimirovich is also crazy, but not a fool. He has a lot of his own problems. I don't think he needs the Belarusian turbulence to smoothly migrate to Russia. A year ago, this could have gone off with a bang, there were no such moods. Many were convinced that our path was only with Russia.

And now I, like many others, felt that we can make, if not the first, then second Switzerland. We can live even better!

- I'm intrigued!

- Belarus now has a unique opportunity to show the whole world how to live differently. We can show a new economy, a new policy, and a lot of new things.

We have not just potential, we are ready to move to a new state. All over the world, they are looking for new ways of democracy, economic development, then there is how to remove contradictions. The Belarusians, largely unaware of it themselves, removed these contradictions last year purely intuitively.

And if we also make laws for everyone, and not just for the elite, then there will be even more opportunities. Now Belarus, like no other country, understands the value of what is written in the law.

I think that when, after the Victory, we, united like this, will solve economic issues, when free people will build a free society, in a year or two, we will reach, if not 100 billion GDP, then 80 easily! We are so creative, plus the euphoria from Victory - all this will speed up the process.