Uladzimir Matskevich:Turchinov couldn’t confess he is afraid to be stabbed in the back by Lukashenka

Europe and the whole civilized world is still patient with the Belarusan regime just because official Minsk hasn’t presented a threat to its neighbors yet.

On March 29 Aliaksandr Lukashenka met with Ukraine’s acting President Oleksandr Turchinov in his residence in the Petrykau district, Homel region. The meeting that lasted more than three hours took place “on the initiative of the Belarusian side,” quotes BelaPAN Turchinov’s press office.

Speaking at the meeting, Turchinov said that it was very important to Ukraine that foreign troops could never invade the country from Belarus.

In his turn, Lukashenka described the border between Belarus and Ukraine as “a border of friendship.” “We will always be together with you as with a most friendly state and will be building our relations proceeding from that. You should know that firmly,” he said.

Belarusan President described the talks as “very useful”, noting that any misunderstanding between Minsk and Kiev could only be the result of a lack of correct information.

Uladzimir Matskevich, the head of the Board of the International Consortium “EuroBelarus”, sums up the results of the three-hour bilateral meeting.

- Oleksandr Turchinov is convinced that Belarus will never show aggression against Ukraine. Is it a political naivety of a self-deception?

- It is a form of diplomatic politeness, not the assessment of Lukashenka’s statements. It is rather a wish and an expression of hope than the statement of the real situation. Turchinov couldn’t confess that he is afraid to get a stab in the back from Lukashenka, even if he expected such threat from the Belarusan regime. He couldn’t say that because of the protocol.

- Turchinov is convinced that foreign troops could never invade Ukraine from Belarus. Do these words have some political juggling? Nobody has officially abolished the Union State with Russia yet. Besides, who can forbid the Russian army to attack Ukraine from Belarus if such decision will be developed in Kremlin?

- That is where the problem is – the agreement about the formation of the Union State hasn’t been denounced yet. Belarus and Russia are tied with lots of treaties and agreements in the military sphere. To relocate Russian military technology within the Belarusan territory there is no need for the permission of the Belarusan President. So the threat of aggression from Belarusan territory exists, as well as the threat that Belarusan armed forces can get drawn in the Russia-Ukraine war.

Europe and the whole civilized world is still patient with the Belarusan regime just because it hasn’t yet presented a threat to its neighbors. As soon as the Belarusan regime violates this border, it will immediately turn from the authoritarian regime into a country that is dangerous for the world community. And in this case nobody will dare to make forecasts about the reaction of the world community on the military threat.

- Lukashenka’s ability to speak about one thing and do something completely different is astonishing. And the thing is that people do believe him! On March 29 Lukashenka swore that one shouldn’t expect anything bad from Belarusans. And only two days before that the Belarusan delegation voted against the Resolution of the UN General Assembly on the territorial integrity of Ukraine…

- I have always been saying that we can’t trust any Lukashenka’s words said in public. It is official decisions and actions that we are to take into account. No matter what show Lukashenka is trying to put on, the vote in UN regarding the Ukraine’s territorial integrity speaks for itself. We can assess only Lukashenka’s actions, whereas his words aren’t worth a pin.

- In the interview with Savik Shuster Lukashenka mentioned that Belarusan secret services got to know that Belarusan “Maidan” in 2010 was controlled from Kiev. I spent long time thinking about this bewildering statement of the Belarusan leader, but haven’t understood yet why he should have mentioned that.

- We should treat these words as all the other statements, i.e. we shouldn’t believe them. I think that this is a self-advertisement where Lukashenka implies that there was one common source of protest moods, and protest movement was inspired from without, both in Minsk back in 2010 and in 2013-2014 in Kiev.

It is but natural that the dictator cannot admit that mass protests in Minsk and in Kiev have their grounds and reasons. And these are social and economic situation, corruption and dictatorship.