Ukrainian expert: Lukashenka will use war to beg new loans

The Belarusian ruler will use the crisis in Ukraine for his own interests.

Political observer of liga.net website Sergey Vysotsky spoke to charter97.org about the West's ultimatum to Russia over Crimea.

“Lukashenka uses the situation to strengthen his regime. One the one hand, we have heard his statement that he would like closer relations with the European Union, but on the other hand, he ordered the Cabinet of Ministers to work on the issue of replacing Ukraine in Russia's balance of trade. I don't think sanctions will be imposed against Lukashenka. On the contrary, the West will begin to unfreeze relations with him. Belarus is one of geopolitical levers on Putin in the cold war that begins,” the expert thinks.

The politologist thinks the Belarusian ruler will use the situation and may “play a game of Russia's aggression against Belarus to find new loans and unfreeze relations with the EU”.

“It's easy to make up a legend that Russia will put pressure on Belarus after Ukraine. We saw something like that in 2008 during the Russian-Georgian war. But this crisis is more serious than that of 2008. The problem is that America and the West are guarantors of Ukraine's security. If the situation hadn't been de-escalated a bit and the risk of intervention in continental Ukraine remained, I think, the war between the West and Russia would have begun. At least, in Ukraine. Refusing to fulfill the international obligations under the Budapest Memorandum is crashing the global guarantee system. This crisis is more serious than the crisis in Georgia, and Lukashenka has serious opportunities for maneuvers,” Sergey Vysotski said.

The US and the EU threatened the Kremlin with sanctions in case it refuses to withdraw troops from the territory of Ukraine.