Adam Eberhardt: Lithuania too much involved in ‘dialogue’ with Minsk

Lithuania, belarus’s neighbor country, conducts a rather strange policy, the expert thinks.

“The European Union has an unambiguous attitude towards the regime of Alyaksandr Lukashenka and the upcoming presidential election: it’s necessary that the EU neighbor has democratic processes,” Adam Eberhardt, the deputy director of Warsaw-based Center for Eastern Studies, said.

At the same time he pointed to a rather strange policy carried out by Lithuania.

“Both President of Lithuania Dalia Grybauskaite and the Lithuanian government have got too much involved in the dialogue with Minsk. Vilnius risks its reliability. The situation has developed so that now Lithuania’s policy is at some degree a hostage of the future events in Belarus. The EU also faces these challenges,” Adam Eberhardt said.

According to the expert, the European Union got tired of the lack of success in Belarus, of 16 years of “autocratic stabilization”. He also stated that both Poland and Lithuania hoped for some changes in Belarus.

Eberhardt stressed Alyaksandr Lukashenka was weak as never before and ready to meet halfway. He reminded that some years ago, when Lukashenka was also caught being weak, he released political prisoners.

“This gives reasons to suppose that Lukashenka will make concessions, but there are not grounds to think he will democratize the system in the country, because it goes against his desire to preserve power,” he said.