From the MT:
“Hundreds Protest Russia-Belarus
Integration Pact in Minsk”
Several hundred people gathered in
Belarus' capital Minsk on Saturday to protest against what its opposition views
as a loss of independence to Russia. Protesters waved flags and chanted “No to
occupation” as Belarussian President Alexander Lukashenko met Russian President
Vladimir Putin in Sochi to discuss an integration road map for the two
countries. A lack of detail on what a Russia-Belarus integration pact might
include has fueled fears that Moscow aims to gain new influence in Minsk in
order to eventually absorb it. Participants
ripped photographs of Putin during the rally, footage shared by the U.S.-funded
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty news website shows. Protesters also formed a
human chain alongside Minsk’s main street, Independence Avenue, Belarussian
media reported. Lukashenko’s talks with Putin yielded “a lot of progress”
including on resolving differences on Russia’s oil and gas supplies to Belarus,
Russia’s economy minister said. “The positions have come significantly closer,”
Russian Economy Minister Maxim Oreshkin said, without providing any detail. The
two presidents would meet again in St. Petersburg on Dec. 20, the RBC news
website quoted Oreshkin as saying. However, the two leaders left the
negotiations without signing a deal to reinvigorate the so-called Union State
and move forward with plans for closer integration between the two countries. Russia
has helped prop up Lukashenko over the past 25 years with loans and energy
subsidies. But it started to scale back this help last year, prompting
Lukashenko to accuse Russia of trying to bully his much smaller country into a
union. The Belarussian government says it stands to lose hundreds of millions
of dollars a year from changes to Russian tax policy and wants compensation.
Russia says the subsidies it pays to Belarus cost its treasury billions of
dollars. Putin's current term ends in 2024 when the constitution requires him
to leave the Kremlin. Some critics have speculated he could try to bypass the
constitutional limit on serving more than two consecutive terms and retain
power by becoming the head of a unified Russian-Belarussian state. The Kremlin
denies this and Putin has said there are no plans afoot to unite Russia and
Belarus. Lukashenko, who did not speak to the press after the talks, last month
threatened not to sign an integration deal with Russia if it failed to resolve
“oil and gas issues.” The Belarussian leader, who has been in power since 1994,
has dismissed opposition fears that a possible integration pact with Russia
could end with his country losing its independence to Moscow.
^ It is interesting to see Belarussians
protesting against closer ties to Russia. Russians, who usually don’t protest
anything, have been protesting against Putin and his Government’s actions for a
while now and Belarussians, who are even less likely to protest anything, are
now doing the same. Maybe Belarussians see what Russia has done to: Georgia,
Crimea and eastern Ukraine and do not want the same to happen to their country.
Belarus has to walk a very fine line because Putin has invaded, occupied and
annexed other territories who have tried to be neutral between Russia and the rest
of the world. I’m sure Putin and his cronies already have invasion and
annexation plans ready for Belarus (I know they officially say they don’t, but
history has shown us that what Putin says and does are two completely different
things – like the “Little Green Men” in Crimea.) Hopefully Belarus can work
with both Russia and the West to find a way that will help its people open-up
more to the rest of the world and not start a Russian invasion. ^
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