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Sannikov: United States And NATO Have No Illusions About Lukashenka

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Sannikov: United States And NATO Have No Illusions About Lukashenka
ANDREI SANNIKOV VISITING NATO FRIGATES IN TALLINN

The official Minsk remains the West’s potential rival, together with Russia.

Leader of the “European Belarus” civil campaign Andrei Sannikov has stated this to charter97.org while commenting his participation in the Tallinn conference on security.

– This is not the first time when you participate in security conferences in Tallinn. How did this conference differ from the previous ones?

– First, the Tallinn conference celebrated its 10th anniversary this year.

Secondly, it was the last conference in which Toomas Hendrik Ilves participated as President of Estonia. He was one of the originators of this event, all the ten conferences in Tallinn were held under his patronage. The last conference coincided with expiration of his presidential term.

– Will Toomas Hendrik Ilves’ departure affect the work of the upcoming security conferences?

– It will, in the way that Estonia has a unique president, who doesn’t watch over his status but takes an active part in the conference – he stays in the hall all the time, asking questions, commenting speeches.

– Did they talk about Belarus at the conference?

– The Belarusian issue, surely, was not a top priority, but they have touched upon it indirectly. There were questions connected with Belarus and the situation with security in our region.

They raised an interesting question during presentation of a report about the role of NATO in the Baltic region: what is NATO’s attitude to Belarus today – is it neutral, or does NATO perceive Belarus as a rival or Russia’s ally?

The answer was clear: at present moment, when planning, NATO considers Russia and Belarus as two states with an identical position towards NATO. This means – as a potential rival.

– Does it mean that NATO’s analysts realize that Lukashenka’s regime remains tightly connected with Russia militarily?

– Of course they realize this. Surely, NATO has contacts with the official Minsk and they see the regime totally supports the Kremlin with regard to NATO. Besides, this was confirmed by the latest statements made by Russia’s MFA Sergey Lavrov in Minsk.

– Did they discuss Belarus on the margins?

– Certainly, there were many friends, the people closely familiar with the situation in Belarus. There were politicians who substantively concern themselves with our country.

In particular, I had a meeting with Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense of the United States Michael Carpenter who had visited Belarus recently. It was very exciting to hear his opinion and learn the aims and results of his visit first hand.

It turned out the reports about this visit in the official press and even in the independent media hadn’t been exactly accurate. The statements that the Pentagon will allegedly define the policy with regard to Belarus remain far from the reality.

The official media exaggerated the fact that Carpenter had met with Lukashenka, and even the independent media wrote about this as some “turning point”. Their estimations were premature. I did not have a feeling that the United States’ views regarding the regime’s policy had considerably changed, during my conversation with Carpenter.

There were also conversations about Belarus with the Western politicians, foreign ministers, MPs, analysts and journalists.

I took advantage of the situation and presented by book My Story. Belarusian Amerikanka or Elections Under Dictatorship to everyone I wanted to. I can tell now that all three foreign ministers of the Baltic States have it.

– You have published pictures of NATO’s warcraft, as well as pictures from Narva, on your Facebook page. What was happening there?

– This year, they organized a journey to Narva for the participants of the conference. This is a unique place at the border with Russia. It was very interesting to find out how the people live there today. I can tell you, the presence of the “Russian spirit” could be sensed quite strongly there. But the interesting fact is, Russia’s current behaviour slowed down and even buried perspective investment projects. It was planned to create a big center in Narva – a cultural, trading and entertaining one, counting on a great number of Russian tourists who actively visited the city before Russia’s war against Ukraine started. The plans have been frozen now, investors are giving them up.

It was also exciting to visit two NATO frigates: Alvaro de Bazan и HMS Iron Duke, the Spanish and the English one, which, in addition to Tallinn, will come round to Riga and Klaipeda.

The sailors were quite open. They gave a detailed account of the frigates and naval exercises. We know that the Russian Air Forces’ provocations over the Baltic Sea have become more frequent. It was also interesting to know how NATO officers’ assess their actions. The marine officers said straightaway that the Russian planes had not presented any real threat by then, it was just adventurous, irresponsible behaviour. At the same time, they underlined that in case the Russian planes crossed the border and started presenting real threat they would receive an immediate response.

MINISTER OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS OF ESTONIA MARINA KALJURAND AND ANDREI SANNIKOV
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