Vague hints of the Foggy Albion to Belarus

Thus, in the autumn of 2007 a branch of the London PR School opened in Minsk. In March, there were three groups of visitors from Britain interested to see the situation from the inside: a delegation representing a not very famous business cooperation council "Belarus-EU"; a delegation headed by a member of the House of Lords Cecil Parkinson, which included the Director of the PR agency "World PR" Patrick Robertson and a financial expert Paul Phoebe; another member of the House of Lords, the most famous European PR manager Timothy Bell. Unlike the visits mentioned above, a visit to Belarus of two British parliamentarians Mark Pritchard and Brian Binli in May almost went uncovered by the state press of Belarus.

It is worth to mention that all British visitors came to the country unofficially, on a private business visit. The results and the practical impact of the meetings at different levels (from management level to the President of Belarus) are difficult to judge. The public became only aware of a contract concluded by Lord Bell with the Government of Belarus regarding the improvement of the image of our country vis-à-vis international community.

In addition, in July for the first time in five years debates on Belarus took place in the Lower House of the British Parliament, initiated by Pritchard, where a speech was made by the Deputy Foreign Minister Kim Houels.

Representatives of the United Kingdom condemned the explosion in Minsk on July 3 and expressed hope that the guilty will be brought to justice. They talked a lot about the strategic position of Belarus, its dependence on cheap energy from Russia, the need for diversification of energy supplies. Several speakers stressed that due to the geographical position of Belarus the issues was not related to choice between " Russia or the European Union", i.e. that it should cooperate with both, the West and the East. Indeed, participants of the debates called upon the Belarusian authorities to respect human rights and the release all political prisoners.

It is an interesting fact that speakers drew direct links between the democratic election campaign to the Belarusian Parliament with investment from the UK, meaning that today’s negative political image of Belarus carried too many risks for businesses interested in a "piece of Belarusian cake". In particular, London City, the world's largest financial centre, which accounts for more than 40% of all EU financial services, is seeking for the expansion of economic relations with the Republic.

In fact, the statements of British MPs do not contain anything radically new, compared with the statements of representatives of the EU: democracy - firstly, investments - secondly. All these unofficial visits and the fact of debates held in the British Parliament seem to be rather curious.

Belarusian political scientist Roman Yakovlevsky warns: indeed there is interest, however it comes primarily from the London City, while there is no issue of the improvement of the political relations between the official Minsk and London.

It is not a secret, said Yakovlevsky, that Lords and parliamentarians represent the interests of financial-industrial groups of their country and lobby their interests. Revitalization of interest of these groups and their representatives with regard to Belarus could be, among other things, linked with the beginning of the privatization process in the Republic, said political scientist.

A special credit for the increased interest and more frequent visits from the Foggy Albion should be given to the Ambassador of Belarus Alexander Mikhnevich, who is a ‘real professional’, underlines the political scientist. Prior to this appointment in August 2006 Mikhnevich was a Deputy Foreign Minister of Belarus supervising economic cooperation with all countries and he has great experience.

We should not forget about the subjective factors and downplay their significance, said Yakovlevsky while recalling an example of the former Head of the Belarusian Embassy to the Netherlands Vladimir Gerasimovich who, despite of all the difficulties linked to the image of Belarus as "the last dictatorship in Europe", made the Netherlands a major importer of the Belarusian oil products.

On the other hand, said Yakovlevsky, London felt it necessary to appoint an Ambassador as the head of the British diplomatic mission in Minsk regardless of the backdrop of the actual number of staff of the US Embassy.

The Belarusian political scientist believes that one should not compare the rhetoric of politicians and officials of Great Britain and Latvia regarding the expansion of the economic relations with Belarus. "I personally do not think that the Belarusian-British relations in the near future would "improve" to the extent that the Prime Ministers of the two countries meet, as it was the case with Latvia", said Yakovlevsky. At the same time, the economies of the Baltic States could not be compared with the British economy, the UK also lacks the critical need in transit or loading seaports through Belarus, given we're not neighbors.

Marina Rahley

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