Russian politologists: Visits of Lukashenka and Nazarbayev to Kyiv were approved by Putin

Ukraine is used to talk the West out creating difficulties for the Belarusian dictator.

Russian experts have no doubts that Lukashenka is loyal to the Kremlin, NTV reports.

“The visits of Lukashenka and Nazarbayev should be viewed together with the events in Moscow on Tuesday, in particular with a meeting of the Eurasian Economic Union,” politologist Stanislav Stremidlovsky says. “Only the most reliable friends and allies (Moscow, Minsk and Astana are members of the CSTO, EEU and CIS) are allowed to enter the sanctuary – the new National Defence Management Centre. We have common goals. So, it's nothing wrong that our friends from Belarus and Kazakhstan help solve the Ukrainian crisis. But there are other motives.”

“The visits of Lukashenka and Nazarbayev have different aims,” Konstantin Zatulin, the director of the CIS Institute, says. “Lukashenka wanted good relations with the West and guarantees that he won't have any intrigues from the West in 2015. Ukraine is used to talk the West out of creating difficulties for Lukashenka. Nazarbayev, I think, paid a visit firstly because he has interests in the Ukraine-West relations and secondly because, in my opinion, Putin and Nazarbyaev agreed on the visit in order not to allow Lukashenka to think that he is irreplaceable in the [peacemaking] process.”

Aliaksandr Lukashenka said on December 19 that Petro Poroshenko asked for a meeting. The president of Ukraine confirmed the information about the visit of the Belarusian dictator to Kyiv and noted the visit was “timely, important and symbolic”. The meeting took place in Kyiv on December 21.