Natallia Radzina: Lukashenka Shouts 'Alarm!'

The dictator deliberately scheduled his "inauguration" for Freedom Day.

Charter97.org Editor-in-Chief Natallia Radzina gave an extensive interview to the YouTube channel of renowned journalist Yevgeny Kiselyov. One of the main topics is the "inauguration" of Lukashenka, which took place in Minsk on March 25. Natallia Radzina called this action "pathetic":

— Absolutely empty avenues of Independence and Victory, along which Lukashenka's motorcade was traveling, the complete absence of any people.

At one site, a group of employees of state-owned enterprises gathered and waved red and green official flags. Then Lukashenka came to the mini-parade, where the military marched, everything was held in such a "North Korean" style. For some reason, Lukashenka was wearing a dirty jacket.

Then he spoke at the Palace of Independence, where officials were forcibly driven. The dictator spoke about the 80th anniversary of the victory over fascism, he said for a long time that "he will not go anywhere, he will save the country". Then he again promised to fight corruption. He has been fighting it for 31 years. Under these slogans, Lukashenka came to power in 1994.

Overall, it looked like "grandpa is old, grandpa is sick, grandpa is rambling". This could be seen even in the faces of officials. Today's Lukashenka is, in fact, like Brezhnev, he is very reminiscent of the Secretary General of the USSR.

The Belarusian journalist draws attention to the date when Lukashenka's "inauguration" took place — March 25:

— This is Freedom Day, a holiday that Lukashenka has always hated with all his Soviet pro-Russian gut. Although, it would seem, a historian by education, he hates the day of the proclamation of the Belarusian People's Republic in 1918.

Importantly, by hating this holiday, suppressing decades of opposition demonstrations on this day, he held his own “inauguration” on Freedom Day. And here I saw a cry of despair. The dictator shouts "Alarm!"

Natallia Radzina believes that Lukashenko "sends a signal to the West":

— This is a signal that today there is a real threat to Belarus's independence. In the previous program,we discussed the meeting between Putin and Lukashenka. But then they focused on Putin's words that there would be no truce, he did not agree to the conditions of the United States. And so we did not discuss why, in fact, Putin met with Lukashenka.

It was on that day that President Trump's special envoy Witkoff was in Moscow and expected to meet with Putin. He was not received for eight hours, because there were conversations with Lukashenka. So, there was information, including from fairly reliable sources, that Lukashenka came to Minsk black after this meeting. That's literally black, because Putin set him harsh conditions that Belarus should become part of the Russian Federation.

It is possible that immediately after that, the Belarusian territory will be more actively used in the war against Ukraine. And holding the "inauguration" on Freedom Day is a signal that Russia's pressure on the Belarusian leadership has increased a hundredfold, that Putin apparently expects that he will be able to negotiate with US President Trump, divide Ukraine, seize four regions and Crimea, and annex Belarus. Apparently, there are such hopes. Lukashenka became aware of these plans.

Yevgeny Kiselyov expressed the opinion that Lukashenka could find a successor. Natallia Radzina believes that he is now not up to the search for a replacement:

— The question is in what situation Lukashenko will still be alive. That is, he can move to the level of the President of Tatarstan or the President of Chechnya. Therefore, today the main question is how to preserve the independence of the country.

Sovereignty, unfortunately, is lost today, but independence remains. And here I would like to tell you a little about the structure of Belarusian society. Because there are such superficial ideas, including those of Russians, that "Belarus is very easy to join", "it has long been ours".

There is Lukashenka. It is clear that he is an asshole, he drove Belarus into a Russian trap in order to preserve his power. He put Belarus on an energy igloo, receiving cheap oil and gas, interest-free loans in exchange for loyalty and Russification of the country.

Then he sold the land to the Russians. Private ownership of land is prohibited in Belarus, but millions of hectares have been sold to Russians and Arabs. And these are huge territories in Minsk itself and throughout Belarus.

This information is hidden, but it is a fact. They lease the land for 50-100 years. And these are, of course, illegal transactions that have always occurred covertly. No public tenders, nothing was held. A huge amount of Belarusian land has already been sold to the Russians. I am already silent about the real estate that they have been buying up in Belarus all these years.

According to Natallia Radzina, the military elite of Belarus is loyal to the Kremlin:

— They studied at Russian military schools. Mentally, these military personnel are entirely pro-Kremlin and pro-Putin. It is enough to say that the Secretary of the Belarusian Security Council was born in Kazan and graduated from the Academy of the General Staff of the Russian Federation. Defence Minister Viktar Khrenin is also absolutely pro-Russian.

But if we take the middle officer level, not to mention the rank and file, these are completely different people. They either lived most of their lives or were born in independent Belarus. And these are people who do not want to become part of Russia, do not want to become part of the Russian army and fight against Ukraine, and later against Western countries.

Then there is a block of security forces. There is also an interesting configuration here. After 2020, the role of the KGB declined. During the presidential campaign, it became obvious that part of the KGB was working against Lukashenka. Surprisingly, the special services participated in the Kremlin's campaign to put pressure on the dictator.

After all, it is no coincidence that the head of Belgazprombank, Viktar Babaryka, became a candidate for the presidency of Belarus. I saw how it was promoted in independent media operating in Belarus. Obviously, this is an operation authorized by the special services. So today Lukashenka does not really believe the KGB.

Mostly now the dictator relies not on the KGB, but on the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the GUBOPiK. The Ministry of Internal Affairs is headed by Ivan Kubrakou, his deputy — Mikalai Karpenkou.

GUBOPiK is the Gestapo that carried out the main repressions against the population in 2020 and in subsequent years. Lukashenka, of course, relies on them today.

The level of repression in Belarus is comparable to that of Stalin. Up to 10,000 political prisoners are in prisons. But these security forces — both the leadership and their subordinates — do not want to join Russia. These are oprichniks, Gestapo officers—people responsible for crimes against humanity. But they do not want to die for Russia.

The next element is officials. There are no supporters of Russia here either. A new generation of managers has come. There are no more Soviet establishment figures of the Communist Party who were in the leadership of Belarus in the 90s and early 2000s. Now these are young and middle-aged people. If we look at the age of ministers, the prime minister is from 43 to 52 years old. People who also don't want to join Russia. They want to stay in their positions, keep their ministerial portfolios. They all want to be ambassadors of an independent country, including in the West.

Natallia Radzina believes that only rapprochement with the West can save Belarus' independence:

— In order to stop Putin's aggression and annexation, it is necessary to meet the West halfway. It is necessary to get out of the war with Ukraine. It is difficult to say how this can be done today, when there is both a Belarusian-Russian regional group of troops and a Security Assurances Agreement signed with Russia.

But there is no other way. And, of course, it is necessary to release political prisoners. Thousands of people who are in prison today must certainly be released. Europe demands it. If this happens, there may be some negotiations with the West. Some kind of support, assistance and lifting of sanctions, from which the regime is certainly suffering today, is possible. At the "inauguration," Lukashenka repeatedly mentioned how severely Western sanctions are hitting Belarus's economy.

And some officials, of course, understand this. There is a conditional pro-Western wing of the establishment. It is most likely Lukashenka's Deputy Chief of Staff, Natallia Petkevich, or possibly her husband, Valentsin Rybakou, the head of Belarus's mission to the UN. Perhaps this is the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Belarus Maksim Ryzhenkou. This may be former Prime Minister Raman Halouchenka, although there are questions about his ties with Russia. But, in any case, these are sensible people who understand what Lukashenka is doing. These are not oprichniks from GUBOPiK, which lead the country to a complete catastrophe.

The Editor-in-Chief of Charter97.org believes that another factor that may hinder the annexation of Belarus is China:

— Belarus is very important for Beijing. By the way, Vitaly Portnikov recently made a program on the threat of Belarus' incorporation into Russia. He believes that China will be against it.

Belarus is an economic outpost, part of the Chinese "Silk Road". In case Putin captures Belarus, if there is an attack on the Baltic countries from the territory of my country, what will Europe do first? At the same moment, they will close the border.

No goods will go to Europe through a transit country, including Chinese ones. Why would China do that? Beijing can still put pressure on Putin and dissuade him from annexing Belarus.

Yevgeny Kiselyov suggested that many people who are unfamiliar with the state of affairs in Belarus may believe that the country has "stability, a minimum standard of living and no crime." Natallia Radzina told why this opinion is erroneous:

— Low crime rate because criminals are in power. Salaries, indeed, are minimal. Belarus is one of the poorest countries in Europe. Pensions are about $100-150. How can you live on this money? Salaries in the regions are about $200. The price level is comparable to European prices. Absolute lawlessness of the security forces and the size of repressions, which can be compared with Stalin's. In 30 years, of course, Lukashenka has committed so many crimes that after these seven "presidential terms" there should be seven life sentences.

Until 1994, Belarus was a free country that was developing and rebuilding. At that time, I myself was a young student who came to Minsk. I remember the spirit of freedom and hope that we had. We dreamed of building a good state. There were certain mistakes made by the political elites. Then it was necessary to clearly and clearly, as it happened in Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, to announce their intention to join the European Union and NATO. This was the mistake of the Belarusian political elites. At that time, the idea of the Baltic-Black Sea Union was popular with us, but it was never implemented, since some of the countries that were part of this conditional union went under the umbrella of the EU and NATO. Belarus had to make the same choice — to immediately break away from Russia.

This was not done, so the country (largely thanks to Lukashenka) was absorbed by Russia. Fortunately, we have independence and every chance to get rid of this dictatorship. The time is coming to an end. Today, everyone is saying (not only "radicals" like me) that Lukashenka will not live to see the end of his term. It is absolutely obvious.

We will have a chance to break away from Russia and join the European Union. There is no other way to preserve independence if we are next to imperial Russia. We need to go to Europe, where we have always been historically.

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