In recent days, Russian and Belarusian authorities accelerated their decline into bad habits typical of authoritarian regimes dealing with massive and determined protests such as those taking place daily in Belarus over the 9 August 2020 Presidential elections, which were assessed both by the people of Belarus and the international community as having been neither free nor fair.
On Aug. 27, 2020, the Russian agency TASS reported that: “Russia has set up a backup law enforcement unit on the request of incumbent President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko, however, it will not be used so far, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday in an interview with the 60 Minutes program on the Rossiya-1 TV channel. Alexander Grigoryevich [Lukashenko] has asked me to form a backup law enforcement unit, and I have done so. However, we also agreed that it won’t be used unless the situation gets out of control,” the president said.
The mere fact that the Russian president made such threatening statements constitutes another case of overt and explicit interference by Russia in the internal affairs of another country – this time Belarus.
Russian ambassadors in Western democracies should therefore be summoned and sternly warned that any actual or threatened deployment of Russia’s “law” enforcement units in Belarus will be unequivocally sanctioned as an egregious violation of the territorial integrity of Belarusian and international law.
Based upon recent reports, Belarusian authorities have withdrawn the accreditation of numerous journalists, as well as detained and deported others. Such actions are disquieting since they are a textbook precursor to a planned cover-up of more violent crackdowns on protestors.
Consequently, Belarusian ambassadors in Western democracies should also be summoned and admonished for this suppression of media freedom and put on notice that any further aggression against the protestors will not only be condemned, but severely sanctioned.
On 30 August 2020, the Russian agency TASS described how P utin greeted his Belarusian counterpart on his birthday adding that: “During the phone conversation, the sides confirmed plans to further boost Russian-Belarusian alliance and expand mutually beneficial cooperation in all areas. This is the sixth conversation between Putin and Lukashenko of late. The Russian president also discussed the situation in the country with French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and president of the European Council Charles Michel.”
At least three conclusions can be drawn from this report.
The first is that the Russian president is – once again – taking advantage of a crisis to promote Russia’s expansionist policy.
The second is that the Russian president continues to engage Western leaders as the spokesperson for countries he considers to be part of Russia’s sphere of influence.
The third is that the Russian president is actively engaged in the situation in Belarus.
Western leaders must be far more proactive in safeguarding democracy and basic human rights. Any perceived indifference on their part will be fully exploited by authoritarian forces in order to quash, by any means, the legitimate aspirations of the Belarusian people to live in a country governed by the rule of law.
Eugene Czolij president of Ukraine-2050 and was president of the Ukrainian World Congress from 2008-2018. Ukraine-2050 is a non-profit organization established to help implement, within one generation, strategies for the sustainable development of Ukraine as a fully independent, territorially integral, democratic, reformed and economically competitive Europe.
