Sergei Karaganov: We were buying Lukashenka’s loyalty at an extremely high price :: Charter'97 :: News

“I permanently follow the mass media space and I can admit that for the last three or four years there haven’t been more aggressive and hostile propaganda coming from any state of the former USSR than from Belarus and its leader. Simply, we didn’t notice or pretended not to notice it. For the time being, we were buying Lukashenka’s loyalty at an extremely high price. And when we decided to stop it he showed his true colors”, a well-known Russian political scientist declared in his interview with Rossiyskaya gazeta.

According to Karaganov, Alyaksandr Lukashenka have been purposefully destroying the Russian press in Belarus, all the pro-Russian forces around him, pursued the anti-Russian propaganda through the state mass media, which substituted the Russian press in Belarus.

“Lukashenka’s latest declarations are grounded by the fact that at this moment we have decided to put an end to this hypocrisy and have begun to realize the state of things. And now we are doomed to pay a higher price than it might have been several years ago. Lukashenka is eager to sell his supposedly pro-European position to the West, trying to beneficially buy certain preferences for himself. Despite of the fact that he has been hated in the West”, the political scientist points out.

Karaganov pays attention to the fact that ”many people are imprisoned for their convictions in Lukashenka’s country”. “Much to our disgrace, we have not paid attention to it", he says.

“The West despite of criticizing the Belarusian regime has been buying beneficially petrochemical products from Lukashenka, which Minsk had received from our people almost for free and directed the resources for enforcement of its repressive structures. To the best of my knowledge, the staff of Lukashenka’s repressive bodies get wages times higher than those received by the defenders of our Motherland”, the Russian political scientist remarks.
Nevertheless, according to the expert, that doesn’t mean that the Belarusian people are hostile to Russia. Hostile attitude to Russia has certainly increased due to the Lukashenka’s massive propaganda, but the Belarusian people remain friendly and fraternal.

“The anti-Russian propaganda in Belarus has been persistently pursued for years. But, unfortunately, Russia didn’t care much about improving the situation. We, ourselves, gave the information space in Belarus into the hands of Lukashenka. And we didn’t listen to those who had been warning of the consequences”, considers Karaganov.