The political crisis in Belarus and reactions to it have impacted this country’s relationships with all of its neighbors. Predictably, Russia’s role in keeping the Belarusian economy afloat has become even more significant as a result of Western sanctions and air blockade of Belarus. And if the European Union imposes sanctions on Belarus’s potash and refined oil exporters—as the European Parliament has insisted the bloc should (Onliner, June 10)—Moscow’s position will amount to that of the sole guarantor of Belarus’s survival. It is in Russia’s interest that President Alyaksandr Lukashenka “be significantly weakened,” Yauheni Preiherman of the Minsk Dialogue Council emphasizes, “and this is what has transpired” (Svaboda.org, June 8). To Preiherman, the fact that the domestic confrontation in Belarus does not show signs of abating is tantamount to “demonstrating that we are not prepared to be a full-fledged independent country.” Predictably, Preiherman’s message received a hostile reception by most in the Belarusian opposition, much like his initial April 2020 warning to that same effect (see EDM, April 22, 2020).
Protests in Belarus
OP-ED
Grigory Ioffe: Belarus’s political crisis reverberates in Russia, Poland
Protesters hold images of Belarus strongman Alexander Lukashenko (L), Belarus opposition activist Roman Protasevich (C) and Protasevich's Russian girlfriend Sofia Sapega (R) during a demonstration of Belarusians living in Poland and Poles supporting them in front of European Commission office in Warsaw on May 24, 2021 a day after a Ryanair flight from Athens to Vilnius carrying the dissident journalist was diverted while in Belarusian airspace.
