Andrei Sannikov: «Belarus must choose right now»

“The outlined vector of Russia’s development leads to its come-back to totalitarian times. Belarus is facing an acute problem of preserving the independence and statehood. It must choose right now, and the choice must be only European. Because dominating of a single political force in Russia leads to increase of pressure on Belarus with an object to subordinate it to Russia’s interests,” Andrei Sannikov, international coordinator of Charter’97 said, commenting the results of parliamentary election in Russia.

“The election to Russian State Duma wasn’t free, of course. They used a political system, similar to Belarusian one, which excludes presence of alternative points of view in media. We know, that opposition has had no access to media for many years, on the contrary, propaganda campaign of one person has been conducted – Putin and the United Russia. Russia has no choice due to the election. Only one political force is represented in Duma with its opposition being only communists. So the population in Russia can only choose between the bad and very bad. It will obviously affect the inner situation in Russia. I think, the suffocation of rest of independent media, non-governmental organisations, political parties, who don’t support Putin’s course, will go on” Sannikov thinks.

In the diplomat’s view, the ideology of recreation of Russian Empire is being revived in the United Russia. It will result in inevitable geographical expansion. “The pressure of Russia on its neighbours and other countries will grow. Economic blackmail will strengthen, absence of balance, conflict with the West will aggravate the situation,” Andrei Sannikov thinks.