Alexander Lukaschenko can be confirmed again on Sunday in the office of president. The choice is not democratic, but Belarus has already lost large parts of his sovereignty. Vladimir Putin has control over the country.
At a press conference, Schweiger talked about how beautiful and safe it was in Belarus. People are friendly, would laugh a lot, and they had put a doctor at his side who gave him a vitamin infusion. Now he feels like new born, said Schweiger.
For the regime propaganda of the Belarusian dictator Alexander Lukaschenko, this was a feast. Videos with Schweigers quickly appeared on the net that seemed like an image film. The actor defended himself: parts of the press conference have been torn from the context to support messages that “do not correspond to his convictions or his intentions”, he said on Instagram. Too late, because the political damage had long been arranged.
Lukaschko is currently interested in improving its image internationally. He had the election manipulated in 2020, and the subsequent protests had his regime put down bloodily by 2021. There is only a real Belarusian opposition abroad, since the start of the protests in 2020 more than 600,000 people have left Belarus. Over 1,000 regime critics should continue to sit in the state prisons.
Presidential elections will take place in Belarus again on Sunday. It is a choice that is neither free nor fair and is more of a democratic fig leaf for rulers Lukaschenko. The dictator will be confirmed in office, and he has long since lost control of Belarus. Because his terrorist regime cannot hide the country who really has the say in the country: It is Russian President Vladimir Putin.
When around 100,000 people protested against the regime in the 2020 summer protests alone in the capital Minsk, Lukaschenko was weak. He has been in power since 1994 – and thus longer than autocrats such as Vladimir Putin in Russia or Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in Turkey.
While the countries of the European Union 2020 took place behind the Belarusian democracy movement, the Kremlin supported Lukaschenko. Putin sent security advisor; The Belarusian regime was able to act against the protest movement in particular by the backing from Moscow.
With reference to the military agreement between the two states, Russia said that “the necessary help in solving problems would provide it”.
This was also a clear military threat, which, due to the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, seemed even more threatening for Belarusian opposition figures.
Putin and Lukaschko have a decades of partnership. Both have been chasing, playing ice hockey or skiing together in the past. But from the perspective of the Kremlin, two properties mainly speak for the preservation of the Belarusian regime: First, Lukaschko is not a democrat and secondly, he can be controlled by Russia.