Ales Bialiatski: Lukashenka is Putin's ally in war against Ukraine

It would be an illusion to take Lukashenka as a neutral side in the Russian-Ukrainian conflict.

The opinion was expressed by former political prisoner Ales Bialiatski at the Forum 2000 conference in Prague, RFE/RL reports.

“Russian military bases, the common air defence system, huge economic dependence, the cultural and linguistic Russification, the assimilation of the Belarusians – this is the answer whose side Lukashenka supports,” Ales Bialiatski said. According to him, the authorities of Belarus are independent only to the extent allowed by Putin.

The head of Viasna human rights centre warns about the danger of “Azerbajanisation” of Belarus. Azerbaijan, a country with political prisoners and absence of free press and elections, holds chairmanship of the Council of Europe, the organisation that was founded to protect human rights and fundamental freedoms. “Dictators always have things to trade: resources, oil, transit, geopolitical position,” the Belarusian human rights defender says. He reminded the audience about the Belarusian political prisoners who are still held in prisons.

Ales Bialiatski stressed that Russia attacked Ukraine because the Russian leadership felt danger after the people of Ukraine ousted the corrupted authorities. “I know exactly what Ukraine could suit Russia and Putin. The Ukraine like today's Belarus, a dictatorship depending [on Russia] both politically and economically. Like Belarus, where voices of the suppressed people are not heard and independence is phantom and weak.”

Ales Bialiatski called on all people sharing the values of democracy, freedom and human rights to unite, because nondemocratic regimes help one another, so people should struggle together against the “international of dictatorship”.