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Our Objective Is Making Belarus The EU And NATO Member

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Our Objective Is Making Belarus The EU And NATO Member

It is necessary to consider the strategy for the liberation of the country in the most serious way.

The Congress of Free Russia took place on August 31-September 2 in Vilnius. Russian opposition leaders and European politicians and experts took part there, among others: Garry Kasparov, co-founder of The Congress of Free Russia; Mikhail Khodorkovsky, public figure, former head of the Yukos company; Leonid Nevzlin, philanthropist and public figure; Latvian Defence Minister Artis Pabriks; Lithuanian Deputy Foreign Minister Mantas Adomėnas; former Estonian President Toomas Hendrik Ilves; Polish Deputy Foreign Minister Paweł Jabłoński; former US Ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul.

Editor-in-chief of Charter97.org Natallia Radzina represented Belarus at the congress.

The discussion topic was "Halting Russia's Expansion: Threats and Scenarios".

We are publishing the text of the speech.

"The expansion of Moscovia to the West, to the lands of Belarus, Ukraine and Lithuania, has been going on since the end of the 15th century. That is more than 500 years. All these hundreds of years there were wars between our countries and Russia-Moscovia. We lost our land and recaptured it. Tsar Ivan the Terrible captured Minsk, Polotsk, and Vilnia. However, in the 17th century, Belarusians together with Poles, Ukrainians and Lithuanians, captured the Kremlin.

In Soviet times, it was claimed that during the Second World War Belarus lost every fourth inhabitant, but few people know that during the war between the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and Moscovia in 1654-1688, every second inhabitant died in Belarus, and in the eastern part of the country there were more than 80 percent of the population were killed, died of disease or were taken into slavery to the East.

Belarus gained its independence in 1991 after almost 200 years of occupation by Russian tsarism and communism. We have preserved our language and our history. However, the coming of the dictator Lukashenka to power in 1994 stopped the process of building a truly independent national state.

Lukashenka paid with independence and the Russification for cheap oil and gas. He extended his power and strengthened the dictatorship by serving the Kremlin and expressing loyalty to the Kremlin leaders.

As a result, today Belarus has become Putin's base for the attack on Ukraine. Russian troops entered Ukraine from Belarus on 24 February. They use our country to launch Russian missiles and aircraft and for shelling Ukrainian cities.

Nevertheless, despite the fact that the illegitimate Lukashenka regime is, of course, an accomplice to the attack on Ukraine, the situation with the attitude of Belarusians toward the war among Russians varies significantly - 90% of Belarusians oppose the war. We did not vote for Lukashenka, the dictator is hated, and this hatred is only growing against the background of the terror unleashed in the country and the complicity of the regime in the war.

The fact that the Belarusian army has not yet entered Ukraine is also evidence of the unwillingness of the Belarusian military personnel to fight against their neighbours. Both Putin and Lukashenka understand that if the order is given to attack, most of the army will scatter and surrender. Belarusians do not want to fight and die for Russian imperial interests.

This, by the way, is also the merit of the Belarusian independent media and bloggers, who continue to intensely disseminate information, despite the blockages. It is also influenced by the fact that the vast majority of Belarusians have repeatedly travelled to the EU countries and know that life is better there.

War accelerates all processes and sets priorities. What do Belarusians want? They want to live in an independent state and get rid of the dictatorship and Russian influence. Putin alienated the vast majority of Belarusians by supporting the dictator Lukashenka in 2020 and unleashing a war against Ukraine together with him.

Today we have a real chance to finally break away from Russia. Putin's Russia is economically weak, its economy is less than 2% of the world GDP, and it has no allies. It occupies 1/7 of the world, and the population is only 1.5% of the world's population. It has fallen behind technologically, it is economically weak, and the sectoral sanctions imposed by the West, which must be continued and strengthened, are dealing a crushing blow to it. Garry Kasparov is fully right when he says that today's Russia is not the USSR, which could have been the autarky. Today's backward Russia will inevitably lose. Perhaps this is her last advance to the West and an inevitable collapse awaits it.

Obviously, the main today's objective is to provide assistance to Ukraine: military, economic and political. But it is necessary to remember Belarus when helping Ukraine.

The Kastus Kalinouski Regiment is fighting in Ukraine. Its goals are to help Ukraine in the war against Russia and liberate Belarus. More and more Belarusian volunteers go to the front, they fight near Kherson and Mykolaiv, and participate in military operations in Mariupol, Lysychansk and Sievierodonetsk. More and more Belarusians understand that today, unfortunately, we have no other way but to liberate our homeland with arms.

Let us ask ourselves the question: could the Putin regime fall as a result of the fall of the Lukashenka regime, and not vice versa? After all, Putin has always perfectly understood the strategic importance of Belarus. Only Ukraine and the West did not understand this before. They put up with the dictatorship having large trade with the criminal regime, naively believing that it was not dangerous for them.

Today it becomes clear to everyone how dangerous Putin's base in Belarus is: he threatens not only Ukraine with it but the EU countries, Poland, Lithuania, and Latvia. I am talking about attacks by migrants on EU borders, his threats of nuclear strikes and so on.

It is necessary to consider the strategy for the liberation of Belarus in the most serious way. Today the whole world helps Ukraine, but, unfortunately, this help is insufficient. It is necessary to increase the supply of weapons to Ukraine and strengthen the sanctions against the regimes of Putin and Lukashenka and strictly monitor the implementation. Secondary sanctions are to be added to cut any ways to circumvent the sanctions of the involved countries. But it is impossible to defend Ukraine without the liberation of Belarus.

Our way is clear to us already. We are a European country, we are historically closely connected with Lithuania and Poland. And with Ukraine. Not only sentiments but also economic relations. It is necessary to build new roads and modern pipelines in the regions from the Baltic to the Black Sea. Lithuania has great seaports, but they need cargo from Belarus, and we need access to the sea. Our objective is to join the EU and NATO. I hope that someday pro-European democratic forces will come to power in Russia as well.

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