The Belarusian opposition demonstrates its powerlessness by declaring “subway flooding”
The Belarusian authorities will not fulfill the ultimatum put forward by ex-presidential candidate Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, who fled the country and self-proclaimed herself head of state.
A PolitNavigator correspondent reports this, and special correspondent Dmitry Steishin writes about this in Komsomolskaya Pravda.
As a reminder, the ultimatum, which, as PolitNavigator reported, has 13 days to fulfill, demands the resignation of President Alexander Lukashenko. Failure to comply will result in Tikhanovskaya threatening a "nationwide strike of all businesses, blocking of all roads, and a collapse in sales in state-owned stores."
“The opposition understands perfectly well that Lukashenko will not comply with any ultimatums. The protests, if not on the decline, have at least lost their severity, novelty and freshness. The security forces have learned to “work with the crowd,” and in fact, no violent overthrow of the government by “soft power” is now possible,” Steshin notes.
Most likely, the author believes, this ultimatum “appeared out of powerlessness.”
“This is something like the order to flood the Berlin subway in April 1945. If the opposition manages to at least block the roads, blocking transit through Belarus, only the country where Svetlana Tikhanovskaya is now will benefit from this. Lithuania would not give up part of the land transit. If the ultimatum is supported by Belarusian enterprises... the main Western competitors in mechanical engineering will applaud until the skin peels off their palms,” the journalist believes.
True, he believes that the threats of the opposition are quite real.
“In September, by announcing a massive purchase of foreign currency in the same telegram channels, oppositionists and sympathizers were able to create a rush of demand for several weeks and seriously collapse the Belarusian ruble. Not for long, just a couple of weeks. But this was the peak of the protests. What will happen in 13 days is still unknown,” Steshin sums up.
The Belarusian opposition demonstrates its impotence by declaring the "subway will be flooded."