Political Observer: Even Lukashenka’s Allies Detest Him

Giving him the finger behind his back.

During a meeting with the government, Lukashenka made an anti-Semitic statement. Speaking about a corruption scandal in which his former assistant was involved, the dictator said that half of those involved in bribery cases in Belarus were allegedly Jews.

What is the reason for Lukashenka's caveman anti-Semitism? The Charter97.org website spoke with political scientist Dzmitry Balkunets about this:

— I think it is connected with his Soviet upbringing, and, indeed, very caveman-like. This is ignorance. This is not the first time Lukashenka has made such anti-Semitic statements, which show his hatred not only of Jews, but of representatives of any other nations, peoples, and states.

He has the same negative feelings towards Belarusians, and towards Poles, and towards Armenians, and towards Russians, and towards Ukrainians. I emphasize, it is connected with his upbringing. It is a great pity that the country suffers because of his actions and statements, and interstate relations suffer.

Lukashenka has been in power for 30 years, but during all this time he has never been on an official visit to Israel. And this is taking into account the fact that Israel and Belarus, it seems to me, have very deep roots. It is difficult to find another country that would have such historical ties. Several presidents of Israel were born in Belarus, studied in our country. About a million Jews were killed in Belarus during the Nazi years.

Lukashenka's actions are unacceptable. I believe that Israel should expel the Belarusian ambassador until Lukashenka makes an official apology to the Jewish people.

— Recently, the Belarusian dictator has been accompanied by a whole trail of diplomatic scandals — Mongolia, Armenia, and now Israel. Will Lukashenka finally become non-handshakable?

— He is already non-handshakable, people meet with him periodically out of necessity. In the near future, on July 4, he will have a meeting within the SCO. He and the Chinese leader will shake hands there, but there is one telling moment. As far as I know, China has not given Belarus a panda yet. China has such diplomacy — it gives pandas, such cute bears, if it feels a special relationship with a state. Belarus has not received any pandas yet, and no matter how much propaganda inflates this, this fact shows that there are no serious relations there.

This also demonstrates a certain lack of handshake from Lukashenka, when the countries he relies on and considers great for him, etc., keep such a fist in their pocket. It is obvious that all these countries are disgusted by his actions, behavior.

Take for example the scandal of 2019, when Lukashenka staged a demarche in Beijing. They say he threw chairs there and ran away from the summit. He quarrels with all countries, so his handshake is quite relative.

And in light of his latest scandalous statement regarding Jews, I believe that Israel should take a very tough stance. It is also worth paying special attention to Lukashenka's statement that he arrests a lot of Jews.

As far as I can see from the ethnic composition, there are not many Jews in the Belarusian government. And if Lukashenka makes such decisions, then maybe arrests in Belarus are based on nationality.

He cited the example of Ihar Brylo, who was the Minister of Agriculture, and was allegedly arrested for corruption. I think that Brylo was arrested not for corruption, but because, while being a minister, he entered into a public squabble with Lukashenka, accusing him of unprofessionalism in the field of agriculture. Before that, Brylo worked for several months as Lukashenka's aide in the Vitsebsk region, and then went to prison. I think that this was done at the request or demand of Lukashenka, it seems unlikely that there was any corruption component there.

Perhaps this was done on ethnic grounds, due to the fact that Lukashenka did not like Brylo from the point of view of his nationality, and he apparently decided to send him “to a concentration camp”. I believe that all these actions should be assessed by the international community.