‘Impressed by the courage of the people of Belarus, turning out in massive numbers.
Norway supports their demands for free and fair elections. Lukashenko needs to enter into dialogue with the opposition.
Police violence and electoral fraud are unacceptable’, says Minister of Foreign Affairs Ine Eriksen Søreide in a statement.
Source: Government / Norway Today
Like Turkey’s Erdogan, Lukashenko was riding the shark, starting to try to play (off) both East/Russia and (Europe) West (of Belarus). But unlike Erdogan, he didn’t have Islamist enforcers to terrorize the opposition. He even kicked out Russian Wagner operatives before the election, and then it all blew up anyway. The fool.
He then accused British, Polish, and Czech intelligence of stirring things up … almost like what happened in the February 2014 Kiev coup (but in this case, no opposition snipers to escalate the demonstrations into a coup … yet, anyway).
And now he has run to Putin wanting P. to back him up and bail him out. Lukashenko getting to his knees and begging his supporters’ support lost him any strong-man credibility and *their* support.
In any case, he completely blew it and must be replaced.
Belarus is a geographically and strategically pivotal “buffer state” for Russia, and the Russians are already scared by the spectre of our “interventionist”/aggressive NATO having bases all the way up to Kharkov at their throats. They cannot allow Belarus to fall like Ukraine has, so far.
Hopefully, the Russians and the opposition can work out an agreement to let Belarus stay independent and increase democracy, while guaranteeing Russia’s security, so the Russians don’t have to move in and take the place.
As Ine says, the demonstrators’ courage has indeed been impressive, as have the nationwide strikes, so I assume the Russians are willing to deal reasonably.
If Russophobe Democrat neocons Harris&Biden do win Election 2020, I expect the Russians will take ALL Ukraine within days, if not Georgia as well, and them to expect the Finns to formally agree to not becoming a NATO member (at least until someday the Russians do) to avoid that fate themselves.
The Russians’ backs are to the wall, which we the “exceptionalist” West fail to comprehend at our own extreme peril.
We all impressed by the solidarity which has a Belarusian society. But the unbreakable dictator is still manage everything in the country. And , yes, arrests are still going on.