{"id":11475,"date":"2022-09-19T09:13:20","date_gmt":"2022-09-19T06:13:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/api.pozirk.online\/longreads\/lukasenka-demonizing-west-would-not-criticize-kremlin-despite-threat-to-belarus-independence\/"},"modified":"2026-02-24T20:29:13","modified_gmt":"2026-02-24T20:29:13","slug":"lukasenka-demonizing-west-would-not-criticize-kremlin-despite-threat-to-belarus-independence","status":"publish","type":"longreads","link":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/longreads\/11475\/","title":{"rendered":"\u0141uka\u0161enka demonizing West, would not criticize Kremlin despite threat to Belarus\u2019 independence"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\n <span>By Alaksandr Klasko\u016dski, BPN<\/span>\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t * Reproduction is allowed\n<\/p>\n<p>\n <span>Alaksandr \u0141uka\u0161enka lashed out at Poland and the West in his speech marking the reunification of Western and Eastern Belarus in 1939 as a result of a secret deal between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union.<\/span>\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\tThe Belarusian leader ramped up his anti-Polish rhetoric as his government&nbsp;marked&nbsp;September 17 as National Unity Day.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t In his speech, the Belarusian ruler reprised his old false narratives and took pains to avoid mentioning the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact, a non-aggression agreement that enabled Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union to partition Poland. He claimed that Poland was responsible itself for collapse.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t A historian by training, the Belarusian strongman often denies historical events and distorts narratives to align history with his political objectives.\n<\/p>\n<h2>Casts Poland as enemy, Russia in favorable light<\/h2>\n<p>\n\t To defend his decision to declare September 17 a national holiday, \u0141uka\u0161enka attacked Poland, portraying it as Belarus\u2019 enemy number one that seeks to retake the territory lost in 1939. He also demonized the West but cast Russia in the most favorable light.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t He claimed that \u201cBelarusian lands evolved in the alliance with east Slavic neighbors (Kievan Rus, the Russian Empire and the USSR), and we died in the embrace of the West (in which we repeatedly found ourselves). They plundered us and tried to eliminate us as an ethnos in the era of Rzeczpospolita and during the 20-year Polish Order period on our western lands.\u201d\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t It is true that Polish authorities persecuted Belarusian leaders and activists. Still, Poland treated Belarusians much better than Joseph Stalin\u2019s Soviet Union. The Soviet regime forced peasants to join collective farms, executed intellectuals and leaders, forced more than 120,000 Western Belarus residents onto train convoys of cattle wagons and shunted off to Siberia, and sentenced thousands to GULAG labor camps.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t \u0141uka\u0161enka would not mention GULAG in his speech, but seized the opportunity to talk about Poland\u2019s prison in Bereza Kartuska, often described as a concentration camp.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t He twisted historical facts. For instance, he described the Belarusian land\u2019s incorporation into the Russian Empire as \u201ca union with east Slavic neighbors.\u201d The Russian Empire took the lands by force and launched a Russification drive to assimilate its inhabitants. Belarusians did not have any autonomy within the empire. The Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic had formal autonomy in the Soviet Union but it was just window-dressing.\n<\/p>\n<h2>Russian army boots on Belarusian soil<\/h2>\n<p>\n\t \u0141uka\u0161enka and his propaganda machine cast NATO as the ultimate evil, turning a blind eye on the presence of Russian troops in Belarus and their attacks on Ukraine from Belarusian territory. Moscow forced the \u0141uka\u0161enka regime to cede its sovereignty over military matters to Russia.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t \u0141uka\u0161enka is afraid to criticize the Kremlin for fear of losing his power. But he was extremely vocal in blaming the United States for the Russian full-scale war against Ukraine. He claimed that \u201cthe USA are inciting Europe to start a military clash with Russia on Ukrainian territory.\u201d\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t The false claim does not hold water. The hypothetical clash would be impossible in principle if Russia had not invaded Ukraine.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t Actually, \u0141uka\u0161enka is annoyed that the Kremlin treats him as its vassal, while the West does not take him seriously any longer.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t He is trying to maneuver his way out of trouble and is frantically searching for allies to counterweight Russian influence, looking to China and possibly Turkey for support. He has given up hope for any assistance from the West.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t He pro-actively courted the Chinese leader during last week\u2019s Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit meeting.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t However, Beijing would not move a finger to protect Belarus if Vladimir Putin decided to annex it to Russia.\n<\/p>\n<h2>Hybrid attacks against Europe<\/h2>\n<p>\n\t The West cannot give Belarus any effective security and independence guarantees either. Basically, it failed to protect Ukraine.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t Anyway, Western sanctions have had an impact on Belarus, which misses out on revenues from exports to the European Union and Ukraine. \u0141uka\u0161enka pointed out last month that Belarus should not break off trade ties with the bloc.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t \u201cMadness of [European] politicians is taking a backseat. Business is business,\u201d he noted.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t Both Minsk and the Kremlin hope that possible public discontent, inflation, the looming energy crisis and cold winter will force EU politicians to cede ground to Russia, and maybe Belarus.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t Russia and Belarus employ hybrid methods to destabilize Europe such as cutting off natural gas supply and engineering a migrant crisis at the EU border.\n<\/p>\n<h2>No amnesty for political prisoners<\/h2>\n<p>\n\t Incidentally, \u0141uka\u0161enka has not disclosed in his speech any details of the government-announced amnesty program that was expected to benefit some political prisoners.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t Instead, he kept up his rhetorical attacks on Poland, claiming that it failed to reciprocate for its liberation from Nazis during World War II. Does he seriously think that he or his security forces had something to do with the liberation of Poland from Nazis?\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t The Belarusian leader made it clear that he was angry at Warsaw for its Karta Polaka (Polish Charter) program, which gives Belarusians with Polish roots certain travel and employment benefits, and for its support of the Belsat TV station and other programs of the Belarusian opposition.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t His angry tirades suggest that he may not be able to overcome his hate to free his jailed opponents and let those who fled return home safely.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t &nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Alaksandr Klasko\u016dski, BPN * Reproduction is allowed Alaksandr \u0141uka\u0161enka lashed out at Poland and the West in his speech marking the reunification of Western and Eastern Belarus in 1939 as a result of a secret deal between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union. The Belarusian leader ramped up his anti-Polish rhetoric as his government&nbsp;marked&nbsp;September [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":75,"featured_media":0,"template":"","rubric":[22],"class_list":["post-11475","longreads","type-longreads","status-publish","hentry","rubric-theviewer"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>\u0141uka\u0161enka demonizing West, would not criticize Kremlin despite threat to Belarus\u2019 independence | Pozirk<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"By Alaksandr Klasko\u016dski, BPN * Reproduction is allowed Alaksandr \u0141uka\u0161enka lashed out at Poland and the West in his speech marking the reunification of\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/longreads\/11475\/\" \/>\n<meta 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