Natallia Radzina: Trump And Putin Agreed On A Deal With Lukashenko Back In Alaska

The deal should be canceled until Mikalai Statkevich is released.

In an interview with YouTube-channel of the well-known journalist Evgeny Kiselyov, editor-in-chief of the website Charter97.org Natallia Radzina commented on the release of 52 political prisoners. The Belarusian journalist calls the event, which took place on September 11, not a "release," but a "forced deportation," because the prisoners of conscience were deported to Lithuania:

- The only political prisoner, who refused, declared his legal right to remain on the territory of Belarus, was Mikalai Statkevich. We have talked about him many times in our broadcasts, and this man showed an example of real leadership, courage and selflessness. We still do not know where Mikalai Statkevich is, although more than a week has already passed.

At first, there was information that he was returned to the special regime colony in the town of Gluboky, where he has been held until now. This is one of the most terrible prisons in Belarus. Mikalai Statkevich has been there for more than five years, and most of the time he was in solitary confinement. The conditions in it are monstrous, comparable to the medieval ones, because he was in the basement of the 18th century monastery, where there is terrible dampness, during the rains there was water up to his ankles in his cell. The politician during this time had covid three times, he had a heart attack. We learned all this from other political prisoners who were able to see him before his deportation.

Mikola Statkevich has an arrhythmia, serious health problems, we do not know what is happening to him now. I believe that Lukashenko's deal with Trump should be canceled until Mikalai Statkevich is released and allowed to live in Belarus, to which he has an absolutely legal right. It is impossible to lift sanctions on Belavia, to open an embassy in Minsk against the background of the fact that the real leader of the Belarusian opposition continues to be in prison, his life is in danger.

Natallia Radzina notes that the regime is afraid of Mikalai Statkevich, which is why the dictator can't allow the opposition leader to remain at large:

- This is a serious event for Lukashenko, no one has challenged him in such a way. Yes, there are a lot of courageous people in the Belarusian opposition, but what Mikalai Statkevich did shocked Lukashenko himself. Mikalai Statkevich's deed encouraged both Belarusians inside the country and emigration.

Rationally it can't be assessed, one should just accept that there are people for whom the values of freedom, democracy, independence are more important than life. Nikolai Viktorovich is one of these people.

Natallia Radzina and Yevgeny Kiselev also discussed the topic of the Polish-Belarusian border, which has remained closed since September 12 by Warsaw's decision:

- It is officially stated that the border is closed indefinitely, and the Polish authorities explicitly said that the issue of security is more important than the economy.

As Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski put it, "the Poles' cup of patience is overflowing." We are talking about drone attacks on Polish territory, and about the West-2025 exercise with an aggressive scenario, where an attack on both Poland and Lithuania was practiced, as well as the seizure of the Suwalki corridor. Moreover, the persecution of the Polish minority in Belarus continues, Catholic priests are arrested. Recently, a Polish monk was detained, allegedly on charges of espionage. Polish schools are being closed, Polish monuments and Polish graves are being destroyed, and against this backdrop, migrants continue to attack Polish borders, which began in 2021, and today they have only intensified.

The other day, Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski met with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, who came to Warsaw, and they just discussed this issue. The Polish side hopes that China in this situation will be able to somehow influence Lukashenko. But we understand very well that the issue of attacks on the Polish border is decided not by Lukashenko, but by Putin.

Lukashenko can, for example, release Polish priests, stop pressuring the Polish minority and release journalist Andrzej Poczobut. But attacking Poland's borders with migrants or drones is not his solution. Let's see what China will do, because for it, closing the border with Poland leads to serious losses.

The editor-in-chief of Charter97.org told why the Belarusian-Polish border is so important for Beijing:

- The way from the Chinese border to the European Union by rail is about 5-7 days. And mainly perishable goods that need to be urgently delivered to Europe go through Belarus. The main flow of Chinese goods goes by sea, and the journey is quite long, it takes about a month, and if the ships bypass Africa - two months.

I read that some alternative routes through the Arctic are allegedly being prepared, but we are well aware that it is a matter of a long time until they are fine-tuned. I think that the corridor through Belarus is extremely important for China. And they will have to talk both with Lukashenko and, of course, with his master Putin to somehow resolve this issue.

But Belarus is suffering great losses from the closure of the border, because the railroad loses about half a million euros every day. That is, it has already lost millions of euros and will continue to lose millions of euros precisely because of the cessation of rail transit of Chinese goods.

What Poland is doing is extremely important. Putting pressure on Lukashenko's regime by closing the borders is an opportunity to change many things in Belarus, to release not dozens but all political prisoners. And, naturally, Poland can solve the issue of border security. And a lot can be achieved in this way, especially if Lithuania and Latvia solidarize with Warsaw.

Now the cargo flows are transferred to Lithuania. And, of course, there are grandiose queues there - hundreds and thousands of trucks at the border. If the position of Belarus' neighboring countries were common, it would be the toughest and most effective sanction against Lukashenko's regime.

It is also extremely important that Poles do not open the railroad connection for cargoes from China, but do not open, for example, checkpoints for civilians, then this sanction will hit first of all Belarusians, but not the economy of the regime.

Natallia Radzina commented on the invasion of Russian fighter jets into Estonian airspace, which took place on September 19:

- Why didn't they shoot down? They had the right to shoot down. Erdogan shot down a Russian plane over Turkey and nothing happened. No more flying. Nothing surprising happened, you and I have been saying that provocations will continue until there is a tough response to Putin. Russia is testing NATO and, judging by the absence of any clear response, it realizes that it is possible to further terrorize these states, and later there may be an attack on Lithuania, on Latvia, on Estonia. What was practiced during the Belarusian-Russian exercises "Zapad-2025".

When journalists asked me about these maneuvers on the air, I answered - watch the scenario and just believe that sooner or later they will realize it. There is no need to look for any subtext in this.

The fourth year of the war is underway. Provocations against NATO countries are increasing. And the West still has no protocols for action. It is now a monumental failure. And what happened in Poland, and what happened more than once, when drones flew into Romania and there was no response. They flew into Lithuania, and there was no reaction. Now there are already airplanes for 12 minutes in Estonian airspace. And where is your response?

The editor-in-chief of Charter97.org urges not to underestimate the potential of Lukashenko's and Putin's armies:

- I know that the Belarusian army is actively training soldiers to control drones. Training is underway to repel UAV attacks. Drones are now being produced in Belarus, at several enterprises at once.

The Belarusian army is adopting Russian experience. We realize that today there are only two countries that can fight in a modern war - Russia and Ukraine. NATO countries, unfortunately, judging by recent events, are not ready for the fact that today warfare is conducted by completely new means - with the active use of UAVs. And only now they have started talking about a "wall of drones", but again, how long it will take to create it.

I always say that Belarusians do not want to fight against Ukrainians. They would not want to raise arms against people who are really brothers to us.

But Lukashenko will simply be put before the fact: either you send the army to Ukraine, or in two hours you will not be in this world at all. That's it. Just like no one asked him when the territory of Belarus was used by the Russian army.

Evgeny Kiselyov asked a question about Lukashenko's subjectivity. Why is Trump talking to the Belarusian dictator if the latter is a Russian puppet. Natallia Radzina believes that Putin pre-approved the talks between Minsk and Washington:

- Lukashenko himself would never have met with any Keith Kellogg, special envoy of the US president, and would not have negotiated the release of political prisoners, the opening of the US embassy in Minsk, without having agreed on this with Putin in advance.

Putin finds it extremely advantageous to drag Trump into some kind of negotiation process. Trump understands perfectly well who Lukashenko is. He is Putin's main ally. Why, then, is Trump fiddling with him? What does he want? First, the release of political prisoners may be caused by the desire of the U.S. president to receive the Nobel Prize. He no longer cares how these people are released or that they are deported from Belarus. He doesn't care at all how. The main thing is that he can say: I released 1300 people. It doesn't matter that they are thrown out of the country, and Lukashenko is happy that he deported patriots. "I freed them, give me a bonus." That's one moment.

The second moment is the lifting of sanctions on Belavia. In general, frankly speaking, I think that Trump could have agreed with Putin about this back in Alaska. Because now Russian Boeings will be able to receive American components through Belarus.

In Russia, airplanes crash very often, and they need these components, which are not supplied to Russia because of sanctions. Now both components and software will go to Russian aircraft fleets via Belarus.

Why won't Putin, whose army is suffering from a shortage of personnel, send the Belarusian military to the war in Ukraine? Natallia Radzina pointed out the difference between Belarusians and Russians:

- Putin understands perfectly well that Belarusians are not loyal both to Lukashenko himself and to the Russian regime. And the year 2020 showed him this clearly, when a million citizens of the country came out to protest against Lukashenko's regime. And during these five years the situation has not changed. Not everyone left and went to jail. And the society hates this regime. Even if it is in a strangled state now, people can't actively express their protest. Nevertheless, if Belarusians are given weapons and sent to the territory of Ukraine, there's no telling what will happen.

I assume that the majority of Belarusian servicemen will surrender, simply drop these weapons and not go to war. And these sentiments are everywhere. They are not only among politically active citizens, they are among Belarusian servicemen.

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