Political Scientist: Kremlin Sends Signal That It Is Ready To Work Together With West On Belarusian Issue

The pressure on Lukashenka will increase.

Head of the Center for Strategic and Foreign Policy Studies Arseni Sivitski has expressed the opinion in an interview with Radio Svaboda columnist Vital Tsyhankou that the West and the Kremlin may come to a consensus on the issue of regime change in Belarus.

- So far, neither the U.S. Treasury Department, nor the U.S. State Department have made any statements about the extended extraterritorial sanctions against Belarus. But if you look at the sanctions that have been imposed on Russia in recent years - all of them were extraterritorial. So, most likely, the Russian side, having such an experience, is trying to stay on the safe side.

On the other hand, the expansion of American sanctions against Belarus is very likely to have an extraterritorial nature, that is, the U.S. will also impose them against those companies that cooperate with the Belarusian side.

I agree with the theory that the Kremlin thus pressures Lukashenka, as today the issue of the transit of power in Belarus in the interests of the Kremlin is not excluded from the agenda. The Kremlin seems to have exhausted all the tools of political and diplomatic nature, so now Moscow is looking for other leverages to put more rigid pressure. The economic restrictions are exactly of such a nature.

Therefore, the U.S. and European sanctions are a boon for the Kremlin. Moscow demonstrates that it will use this situation to increase pressure on Lukashenka. And secondly, it is a signal that the Kremlin is ready to work together with the West to solve the Belarusian political crisis.