Consider Not Looking Back At Putin?

The democratic world has every opportunity to act decisively.

In the ever-memorable vegetarian times, when the Lukashenka’s regime killed and tortured with only a few or dozens, and we tried to shout to the whole world that this should be stopped before it was too late, I remember two types of reaction to our situation and to our appeals not to be complacent.

The first of them was when they explained to us: not everything is as gloomy as it seems, independent press works, opposition parties are allowed to exist, the number of non-governmental organizations is growing .. In general, all the rubbish that people of democratic views are throwing at you, progressive convictions, everyone who knows about the world, about you personally and about the apartheid regime. True, they themselves live under the protection of laws that are in effect, and not in a situation of lawlessness, like ours.

The second refers more to the liberals from Russia, although not only. This type of reaction was the most surprising. When we told our friends from Russia, including human rights defenders, politicians, journalists and other activists, that Putin is actively learning from Lukashenka, uses the same techniques as his Belarusian counterpart to stifle freedoms, many of them began to take offense.

“Well, stop admiring yourself so much,” they said, “ours will not stoop to such a point that he’s going to be Lukashenka’s apprentice.

That is, even in evil, the greatness of Russia should have been undeniable.

On the one hand, in Russia for a long time they did not want to believe in the reversibility of all fragile gains in the relatively liberal period, and on the other hand, they believed that the master of the Kremlin would not become like the kolkhoz Fuhrer.

Putin turned out to be a diligent student, he even began to play hockey following the example of his teacher Lukashenka. Now they are happy to compete in whose video editing of their ice exploits is better.

An attitude similar to that of Russian liberals towards the dictator Lukashenka has begun to manifest itself more and more often in the West.

It became especially noticeable after Russia attacked Ukraine, annexed Crimea and became insolent in the region.

For some “strategists” Lukashenka suddenly became not just a lesser evil, but generally not evil. The most brutal dictatorship in Europe suddenly began to turn white and fluffy before our eyes in the Western press and analytical calculations of the “strategists”.

“It’s not Lukashenka that is evil, but Putin,” the heirs of the Kremlinologists habitually whined, “and Lukashenka, the poor fellow, himself suffers from the Kremlin despot, one ought to be more kind to him, and give him more money.

Today the whole world knows how such complacency, especially European, ended: the most cruel repressions in Belarus since the time of Nazism, murders of civilians, brutal tortures in prisons, and thousands of political prisoners.

By the way, none of the public politicians who treated the tyrant-psychopath so affectionately did not even deign to admit their mistakes. There is no need to talk about non-public European functionaries-bureaucrats. Many of them continue to work in the sweat of their brow over the next failures of EU policy.

What is this reasoning for? Of course, for what is today called the “migrant crisis” on the borders of Europe.

In fact, this is another planned and well-organized aggression of the Lukashenka regime against Europe. At the beginning of this special operation in the Polish and Lithuanian direction, using migrants as cannon fodder, everything was clear: the crisis was the work of Lukashenka, information about preparations for it had been known for a long time (for some reason, Europe did not take preventive measures), so you need to react urgently and harshly, first of all, to hit the criminal with sanctions. Urgently close a new path of illegal migration through the “hospitable” Lukashenka. Everything is correct, and everything is clear, and everything would have been promptly nipped in the bud.

But then someone uttered the magic word: Putin.

And it started all over again.

As Kipling wrote: “The Banderlogs claim that they are a great people, but a nut falls, and they all forget about it.”

The nut fell. And it began ...

Of course, Putin is to blame for everything, he invented everything, he leads everything, and Lukashenka is again just a puppet. It is Putin who brings up the logs for the assault on the border with Poland, Putin sets up detachments of Lukashenka's punishers to prevent citizens from the eastern world from entering democratic Belarus.

Putin, Putin, Putin ...

But Putin is another matter. Putin is a nuclear weapon, and oil and gas, of course.

It's prestigious to fight Putin, he's not a collective farmer.

Plus it's safe. After all, the fight against Putin does not imply victory, but involves deals that are beneficial to Putin and the parties fighting him.

Many are relieved to join this struggle, because it is for a long time, and it is in an adult way.

And Putin himself is undoubtedly glad to fight with himself, because thanks to the efforts of Lukashenka, he is back in the game. He is again a mixture of Voldemort and Baron Harkonnen (who, by the way, is also called Volodya). They even ask for help from him.

For example, Frau Merkel asks him to calm down Lukashenka. Life in empires is getting better again.

Then the same Merkel, on the advice of the Russian camarade, calls the dictator Lukashenka, without even thinking that her inappropriate call will only irritate the criminals and push them to even more reckless and dangerous actions.

Discussing future fears associated with Putin is, of course, more comfortable than the real dangers posed by Lukashenka.

Here we should make the necessary clarification. Putin is indeed extremely dangerous for the international world. The Kremlin is indeed hatching aggressive plans, and is in a high stage of readiness to implement them. Indeed, Putin can use the entire migrant situation as a cover for widespread aggression against Ukraine. Yes, what can I say, everyone perfectly understands the danger of the current policy of Russia.

But using all these objective circumstances to blur Lukashenka’s problem would mean multiplying the threat to European security.

Perhaps Putin stands behind many of the psychopath's actions in Belarus, but rather he takes advantage of the crises that Lukashenka creates. Maybe Lukashenka creates them on purpose, counting on Putin.

In any case, it is difficult to fight Lukashenka through Putin: they are of the same suit. But it is possible to influence Putin by rigidly blocking Lukashenka's aggression. Not only possible, but also necessary.

Moreover, just today, after the overwhelming majority of the people spoke in favor of a change of power, a unique situation has developed in order to apply the most severe measures to the illegal regime: sanctions, an international tribunal, search and arrest of the stolen money.

The democratic world has every opportunity to act decisively, and cope with the essence of the evil that threatens a war on the borders of Europe - the dictatorial regime in Belarus. Belarusians have already done a lot to protect European values, but we also need not formidable promises, but more effective assistance, without looking back at Putin.

Coordinator of the European Belarus civil campaign Andrei Sannikov, Facebook