Posts Tagged Kremlin

SOS

Posted by Maryna Rakhlei in EU on August 21, 2010

You could pretty well imagine how it feels today to be a Belarusian.

Think of your influential neighbouring country, one that is very close culturally as well as politically. After a government green light, the media starts a propaganda campaign against your president, who has always been its friend. According to the reports he is corrupt and authoritarian, controlling cash flows and killing his challengers.

This campaign to oust him has to do neither with investigative journalism nor with the sleaze itself. It’s just a means to discredit a head of state. The two governments are all too close and in fact pretty similar – telling the entire story behind its previous support could be far too revealing for the accusing side.

The neighbouring leadership has even threatened to publish a transcript of talks behind the closed doors, where other presidents were present. That’s an unacceptable step in terms of diplomacy and international relations. But your mighty neighbour doesn’t care.

And it’s not very pleasant, whatever your attitude to your president.

After the recent gas and media wars between Belarus and Russia, sociologists speak of a new geopolitical trend. Since May 2004 and EU enlargement the number of pro-Russian Belarusians is bigger than that of the pro-European side. For the first time after six years the statistics balance out again, heralding the comeback of traditional, bivectoral geopolitical preferences.

It shows that you can hardly beat Lukashenka on his own territory. Even if you are Russia. Belarusians watch filtered Russian TV and have only a few of Russian newspapers to buy. The majority of those who find Russian reports on the Internet are too critical and too knowledgeable to believe the recent TV documentary series and the reports describing Lukashenka on his knees, in despair, being ready to beg for forgiveness and to recognise Abkhazia and South Ossetia within a matter of hours. This campaign is aimed at the Russians. And at Monsieur Lukashenka, of course.

Strange as it may seem, the people of Belarus are uniting around Lukashenka, as he is the guarantor of the country’s independence. Even nationalists see the Kremlin as a far more awful evil than the president, whom they have gotten used to anyhow.

The trying-to-be-impartial Western media views Belarus with Russian eyes. Foreign correspondents in Moscow report on the defeated Lukashenka, saying, between the lines, “it serves him right.”

Sorry, but have you thought about the consequences? Do you believe, dear Western colleagues, that Russia is thinking of getting rid of Lukashenka (even if only in the long run) in order to foster democratisation in Belarus? If Russia comes, we’ll have even more Russia, not human rights.

The question is, what is the Kremlin’s plan – especially for the upcoming Belarusian presidential election? Russia can’t put forward a candidate, it has no political influence on the structures of power in Belarus. Experts worry what may happen if Russia doesn’t recognise the results of the elections and the West is forced to follow suit. The whole nation, not just the leadership, will be ousted and isolated.

And, as you look back, unlike the case of Ukraine or Georgia, there’s neither Brussels nor Washington, absolutely nobody behind you.

Scary, isn’t it?

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Medvedev Goes West

Posted by Maryna Rakhlei in EU on November 25, 2009

Russian President Dmitri Medvedev has given his first ever interview to Belarusian journalists from state and independent media. Nothing special, you might say? You’d be right.

The invitation to Moscow came out of the blue. Why? Why now? What would be his message? Was he going to spank Lukashenka, the Belarusian president, in Lukashenka’s own usual manner? Lukashenka has a tradition of inviting several dozen representatives of Russian regional media to first impress them with tales of enterprises in local villages and then to follow-up with three hours of harsh anti-anything rhetoric on national TV and radio.

Medvedev was highly diplomatic and discreet though. No sensations.

The Russian President called on Lukashenka to restrain himself from making “politically incorrect remarks” about the Russian government.

He assured that Russia had never tried to interfere in Belarusian internal affairs.

For instance, Medvedev said he had never, personally or officially, asked his Belarusian counterpart or other Belarusian officials to recognise the independence of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. He said it would be good for Russia, but that this is an internal affair of Belarus. And that it was Mr Lukashenka who had himself repeatedly assured the Russian leader that Belarus would consider this issue favourably.

Medvedev said he plans to hold regular meetings not only with Belarusian journalists, but also Belarusian politicians and probably even with the opposition. When foreign representatives come to Moscow they also meet with Russian opposition: It’s normal, he said.

The Russian president calculated that Russia has invested about $50 billion in the Belarusian economy since 1991. During the last two and a half years Minsk received loans from Moscow worth almost $3 billon. Next year Russia will sell natural gas to Belarus at a rate that is 30-40 percent cheaper than for other countries in the region.

He even underlined that Belarus should be pronounced “Belarus” not “Belorussia,” as most Russians say it.

In a contradiction of the same message, the news editor of the biggest Belarusian portal, TUT.by, found herself sitting in front of a sign which said TYT.ru. Freud would have loved it! As if psychologically, the Russians do not see any other domains in the region but their own, even internet domains.

It was also interesting that Belapan, the news agency I work with, managed to win over the Kremlin in bargaining about the conditions of the media invitation.

The Russian press-service originally asked us not to report that we had been invited, refused to say who else was coming, what would be the length and format of the meeting and requested three our questions in advance. All this would be OK, I suppose. But they also told us that any articles would have to be based on the Kremlin’s official transcript of the discussions and could only be published after a date that they would reveal down the line.

An hour after Belapan sent an email explaining the reasons why it was forced to refuse the invitation, the Kremlin press-service called the office to inform us that they had changed the conditions for Belarusian journalists. The Belarusian media even got a 30-minute head start on the publication embargo.

So why was Medvedev talking to the Belarusian press, which actually enjoyed his witty and self-assured manner?

Russian experts say: It’s much ado about nothing. His messages have anyway lost their value. Only time will show what it was all about.

Belarusian experts say Medvedev is trying to rattle the nerves of his Belarusian counterpart. It’s in the Russian tradition: As relations with Minsk officials get less friendly, they try to mend ties with opposition. Or: It was another way for Medvedev to show he is an independent political figure who might run against Vladimir Putin in 2012.

Lukashenko reacted in his usual manner. He said it was a “meaningless” exercise. He wondered why the Kremlin invited journalists who “hate the Russians’ guts”. They could have asked his advice about how to handle the media, he said.

On 27 November Medvedev will be in Minsk for a regional meeting. We will probably learn more in Chapter 2 of this political tale.

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