Andrei Suzdaltsev: Political crisis to follow :: Charter'97 :: News

According to the Russian political scientist Andrei Suzdaltsev, the first stage of the Belarusian – Russian crises was energetic; it was followed by financial one and now the political stage is on the waiting list.

Commenting on the Gazprom’s decision of double reduction of the Russian gas deliveries to Belarus to the Radio Ratsia, Andrei Suzdaltsev remarked that the positive situation development “has been disturbed by the political dialogue at the summit level, i.e. between the presidents of both countries”.
“But the decision on deliveries reduction was objectively favorable for Belarus because the agreement of the last December has been retained, i.e.as much Belarus pays, so much it is to receive. It permits to avoid the scandal, now everything is in Lukashenka’s hands: if he wants to get a scandal, he may go out of the agreement and Belarus will have no forthcoming deliveries. And that will result in aggravated consequences. If Lukashenka agrees with the option proposed by the Gazprom today, the situation may be extended until the New Year. But it is to be relied not upon 21 million cubic meters but , say, upon 11 million”, the political scientist considers.
A. Suzdaltsev regards that the Belarusian authorities made a mistake when relying on fast termination of the crises. “The decisions on the Belarusian problem, I must admit, were taken toughly as if it were a Russian region: give them this and don’t give them that. Now we have the crisis to deal with, particularly, the second stage of the Belarusian- Russian crises. The first stage was energetic; it was followed by financial one and now the political stage is on the waiting list”, the expert supposes.