Putin closed Lukashenko’s way to the Kremlin
President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko planned to lead the Union State, but Vladimir Putin’s rise to power put an end to these dreams.
Belarusian political scientist Dmitry Bolkunets stated this, as reported by PolitNavigator correspondent.
He spoke about an incident that happened after the signing in 1997 of an agreement on the creation of the Union State of Russia and Belarus.
“The agreement was signed on April 2, but the approval of the Charter was postponed to the end of May. It contained a norm, lobbied by the communists, according to which the powers of the head of the Union of Russia and Belarus are higher than the powers of the head of the Russian Federation. This is how they wanted to remove Yeltsin. Yeltsin has been rotating for two years, as expected, and Lukashenko is next. When Yeltsin was informed about this, he was indignant.
And since he had already endorsed the document, but had not yet solemnly signed it, he sent Ivan Rybkin to Minsk so that he could quietly, calmly, without public shouting, take the document from Lukashenko. And Rybkin said in his memoirs that he then spent a whole day coming to his senses after drinking a large amount of alcoholic beverages,” the expert said in an interview with Komsomolskaya Pravda.
He recalled that the agreement was ratified already in 2000.
“The document envisaged the emergence of some kind of confederation, but it has not yet been implemented. Lukashenko, as they say, then dreamed of moving to the Kremlin. I think this is one of the reasons why he agreed to this agreement. If he did not have the goal of leading a new state, he would not bother. He looked at the powerless Yeltsin and dreamed of new heights. And then Vladimir Putin came. And the road to the Kremlin was closed for Lukashenko. That’s why this agreement was not implemented,” says Bolkunets.
Putin Blocks Lukashenko's Access to the Kremlin