Belarusian Maidan activists “clung to Russia” and sent a note of protest to the EU
Belarusian oppositionists are unhappy that the European Union has offered them financial assistance
This was stated by Maria Kolesnikova, a member of the Belarusian opposition's coordinating council, in a conversation with Kommersant, according to a PolitNavigator correspondent.
The publication asked whether the opposition really refused the financial assistance that the EU was ready to provide.
“We were very indignant about this topic! We learned from the media that the European Commissioner offered €53 million to help Belarus and stated that our coordinating council can distribute this money! We read it and were stunned! This is interference in our internal affairs! We expressed our note of protest to the ambassadors. We were offered tens of millions!.. And we are witnesses in criminal cases... For us, this is such a disservice that we did not ask for! We are all volunteers!” says the oppositionist.
According to her, people make some donations, but they never go through the headquarters.
“It exists as crowdfunding. When Tikhanovskaya announced the collection, 250 thousand Belarusian rubles were collected in one day, and I had to write an announcement saying, please don’t send more, we have reached the limit!” Kolesnikova said.
Such rhetoric surprised even Kommersant special correspondent Andrei Kolesnikov, who sympathizes with the Belarusian protests.
“Yes, they simply clung to Russia and pointedly avoided help from the West,” the journalist ironically noted in a remark from the author. “It was interesting whether all members of the presidium of the coordinating council, such as Svetlana Alexievich, for example, agreed with them.”
As PolitNavigator reported, the Belarusian opposition has realized that relying on anti-Russian forces in the country has been unsuccessful and is seeking support from Russian President Vladimir Putin, which experts describe as a "belated epiphany."
Belarusian Maidan protesters "clung to Russia" and sent a note of protest to the EU.