Valaam's Friends In Misfortune

3.08.2025, 17:08
10,660

Why Putin summoned Lukashenko.

It seems that Putin has summoned Lukashenko to Valaam for psychotherapy. He needs psychological support before entering into a new protracted conflict with the United States. All dictators are lonely people. And there is mutual psychotherapy going on between Lukashenko and Putin.

After 2020, and especially with the outbreak of war in Ukraine, Alexander Lukashenko and Vladimir Putin meet and negotiate about once every two months. The last time they communicated was in late April in Volgograd. However, then there were two more meetings at official events: May 9, Lukashenko participated in the Victory Day celebrations in Moscow, and in late June, Putin came to Minsk for the EAEU summit. But no bilateral talks were reported then. It turns out that the break is three months.

That is why the current meeting at Valaam is not a surprise at all. Everything is on schedule. Moreover, summer meetings in this place have already become a tradition - for the third year in a row Lukashenko and Putin meet there.

What has changed is the geopolitical context. Now the whole world is discussing Donald Trump's ultimatum to Russia and waiting for Moscow's reaction. And for Putin, the moment of important decisions is coming. That is why the topics of the war in Ukraine, Russia's and Belarus' relations with the West came to the fore at Valaam.

"Unexpectedly," journalists - and quite a few of them - appeared at the monastery on the island. And they asked exactly the questions that were expected. Putin needed Lukashenko for this performance.

It seems that Putin summoned Lukashenko to Valaam for psychotherapy. He needs psychological support before entering into a new protracted conflict with the United States.

Whatever one may say, but all dictators are lonely people. Their entourage can hardly fulfill such a function, they can only praise the leader. And there is mutual psychotherapy between Lukashenko and Putin. Such peculiar Valaam friends in misfortune.

Lukashenko tried. As usual lately, he fully identified himself with Putin and Belarus with Russia: "If someone has closed the door in front of us, there are many open doors in the world. Russia and Belarus have made a very serious turn today. The world will appreciate what we have done. We live and will live. No one will be able to bring us to our knees in our world. We are determined to defend our interests," said Alexander Lukashenko.

Note how many pronouns there are in this remark: "we," "us," "by us," "we. Lukashenko was proving in every possible way that Belarus and Russia are a single entity. Against this background, his arguments about Belarusian sovereignty the day before, at the meeting with ambassadors, looked strange.

As for the essence of the answers to the questions, the main message was addressed to Trump. It was expected and uncomplicated: Lukashenko and Putin are also in favor of peace and negotiations. True, the Russian president specified that peace is possible only if Russia achieves the goals set at the beginning of the war. Simply put, Lukashenko and Putin demanded the surrender of Ukraine. The old meaning in a new wrapper. The essence of Moscow's tactics is to drag Washington and Kiev into long, futile negotiations while continuing the offensive at the front.

A funny episode occurred during the answers to journalists. Lukashenko, discussing the offensive of Russian troops, said: "The Russians will slowly chew it all away, seize it and move on, reclaim it." Putin immediately corrected: "They will take it back. This is ours." Lukashenko had to correct himself and confirm: "They will give it back."

In a way, this is a Freudian reservation. He called things by their proper names: Russia is seizing Ukrainian territories. He never fully mastered the Russian official language or the specific propaganda slang that calls the war in Ukraine a "special military operation" and the seizure of another country's land a "return," etc.

The real negotiations between Putin and Lukashenko continued behind closed doors. What could they talk about?

It can be assumed that they discussed the final format of the September "West-2025" exercises. It follows from the statements of Belarusian and Russian generals that the format varied depending on the changes in the international situation. Now there is a trend for escalation of the conflict between Russia and Belarus and the West. And such exercises are a convenient tool for blackmail and pressure on neighbors, which can be manipulated.

And, as usual, there are economic, or rather financial issues. Belarusian officials have publicly voiced Minsk's requests to Moscow. They are talking about new loans: to refinance old debts, to finance new import substitution projects and, what is especially indicative - to finance the budget of Belarus. That is, the Belarusian government cannot cope with the budget and does not hesitate to ask "big brother" for money. Meanwhile, Russia itself is expected to have a huge budget deficit this year.

Valaam's Friends In Misfortune

Follow Charter97.org social media accounts

Interview

Opinion