‘Lukashenka Is Done’: Experts About Dictator’s Visit To Moscow

There is almost no room left for the ruler to maneuver.

Lukashenka returned to Minsk from Moscow. The talks of the Belarusian dictator with Vladimir Putin, held on April 5, were lengthy and dragged on well after midnight. At the meeting, Lukashenka said that he “exactly worked out” the salary that the Kremlin pays him for complicity in the war against Ukraine.

The Charter97.org website looked at what opinion leaders think about it.

Analysts at the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) believe that Lukashenka is increasingly losing room to maneuver with the Russian Federation amid the Kremlin's relentless pressure campaign to formalize the Russian-Belarusian “union state” and may agree to further integration measures.

Grigorij Mesežnikov, a Slovak political scientist and president of the Institute for Public Problems (IVO) (Bratislava), agrees with this thesis.

“In fact, he is done. From the point of view of international recognition, he’s a complete zero. Belarus as a state is, of course, an important factor, but I think that the West will treat Belarus even harder, given that the regime has become, one might say, the closest ally of Russia in this region, if not the closest of all countries. Lukashenka is already perceived simply as an agent and executor of orders from the Kremlin,” the political scientist said in an interview with Charter97.org.

Russian opposition leader and political scientist Andrei Piontkovsky believes that Russia is preparing an “honorable retreat”, and Lukashenka was instructed to do the “dirty work”.

Polish publicist and political analyst Sławomir Sierakowski noted the inadequacy of the two dictators.

“What Putin is doing now is the method of a madman, which Lukashenka also uses. This is a tactic that Lukashenka also uses against Putin. That is, “I can do anything, I can destroy the whole world, I can destroy Belarus. If you want to catch me, then at the same time you will make or call a hecatomb in Belarus.” And this tactic is now often used by Putin out of desperation,” the publicist said.

The well-known historian and political scientist Alexander Fridman said in an interview with Charter97.org that the Lukashenka regime and the Kremlin are “playing thimbles”, and in this tandem the Belarusian dictator plays the role of a subordinate.

“They consider themselves very smart and cunning, and despise their opponent. They see the West as weak, soft and dumb, as they like to emphasize. “Crazy”, as Lukashenka says. However, these combinations are easy to read,” says Fridman.