Lukashenko flew to Sochi to bargain for independence
President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko flew to Sochi on Tuesday evening, where he will hold another round of negotiations with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin.
Negotiations between the two leaders will take place today. The meeting will be the first this year and the third in recent months.
PolitNavigator previously reported that several rounds of negotiations between Russia and Belarus before the New Year were fruitless . Minsk is seeking so-called compensation from Moscow for the loss of preferential terms for oil supplies, which the Belarusians refined at their own refineries and resold profitably, including to the Ukrainian army as fuel.
So far, Minsk prefers to play “independence”. Thus, Lukashenko publicly stated that “he will not sell sovereignty for a barrel of oil.” In addition, Minsk officials began to flirt with the West, following the example of the former Ukrainian leadership, proposing to hold the Eastern Partnership summit in Belarus, a project aimed at further reducing Moscow’s influence in the former USSR countries.
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko also rejected the idea of switching to the Russian ruble as the single currency of the Union State.
Several days ago, Belarusian separatists—deputies from previous parliamentary convocations— held a congress and issued an ultimatum to Alexander Lukashenko declaring reunification with Russia unacceptable. Otherwise, the document's authors threatened to declare themselves the "legitimate authority."
“The question is whether Lukashenko will make concessions, which he has never done, or whether Russia will do it without any concessions, as it has done all these years. I hope that the first option will nevertheless be implemented, and at least in some area they will put pressure on Lukashenko. For example, in the military sphere. For many years now, the Russian Federation has been wanting to establish a military base in Belarus, but Lukashenko is resisting with all his might,” says publicist Kirill Averyanov-Minsky about the prospects for negotiations.
According to him, for now Alexander Lukashenko, while demanding economic preferences, is ideologically slowly drifting away from Moscow.
“There are fewer supporters of the Union State for obvious reasons. The Belarusian national identity is strengthening in the Belarusian national state. In a nation state it cannot be any other way, because the nation state imposes a national identity on all citizens. The same thing happens in Belarus. Therefore, a generation of Belarusians is growing who did not live in a common state with Moscow. They have an idea of Russia, if not as an “evil empire,” then as an oligarchic bandit state. The Belarusian media are actively promoting this image of Russia,” the publicist noted.
He emphasized that Russia must wage an ideological struggle to preserve Belarus in its orbit.
“What is Western Russian identity? This is, first of all, the postulation that Belarusians are also Russians, just like Siberians or Kuban Cossacks. Belarusians are a subethnic group of the Russian people, for which the national language is the Russian literary language. And indeed it is. Belarus is an absolutely Russian-speaking republic, despite all attempts to Belarusize it. Identity is the Russian language, Russian culture and Russian history. I also believe that textbooks in Russia should also be written taking into account the fact that the history of White Rus' is part of our common history. This is by no means a foreign story,” says Averyanov-Minsky.
Lukashenko Arrives in Sochi to Negotiate for Independence