Expert: Opposition has done a lot to stop being counted with in Europe
ERB: Does it prove that the opposition and the authorities have swapped their places? Does Europe recognize the authorities in Minsk, while ignoring the opposition?
U.M: The Belarusian opposition has done a lot to stop being counted with. It is impossible to do nothing for 10 years. At the moment, the opposition is based on its own narrow political interests and does not pay attention to the current international political situation. I mean the steps that Europe is making for Belarus: to prevent this country from getting under a total control of the Kremlin and becoming an annex of the Russian Federation.
At the moment, the Belarusian opposition has no intellectual support in order to find understanding with Europe. Therefore, why should Europe talk to such an opposition? Local democrats have put themselves into a marginal position, when the interests of the opposition have nothing in common with the interests of the country.
ERB: What happens when Europe will recognize the results of the elections while the opposition will not?
U.M: First of all, pro-democracy forces in Belarus should stop regarding Europe as a subject of our society which decides anything for Belarusians. Europe influences on Belarus a lot, but it can’t upgrade the Belarusian opposition. This is our domestic affair.
They always deal with those who are on the surface. At the moment, this person is Kozulin who was a political prisoner and who has suffered the most from the regime over the past two years and who has a certain weight in the society. This is true that Kozulin does not represent the interests of the whole Belarusian opposition. In the West, politicians are tired of talking to the same personalities about nothing.
But nobody in Europe will take any steps in order to replace Milinkevich with Kozulin or Kozulin with Lyabedzka and so on. Europe will work with those who have brains and backing in the society.
ERB: The government is also saying now that it has brains and a social support…
U.M: No-one of European politicians and experts has doubts that there is an authoritarian dictatorship in Belarus. In these conditions, there can be no normal political process. That’s why even transparent elections dot decide anything. They simply legitimize the subjects deals can be made with.
But in a democratic society, there is a need for democratic process so that unable leaders give way to efficient ones. Here we have a situation when the people who have becomes the leaders of the opposition do the same what Lukashenka does. The opposition leaders think they have a life-long status. This should be like this among democracy supporters.
ERB: Will the regime be definitely legitimized?
U.M: This process is continuing today. Now that Russia and Georgia have had a military conflict and Russia is putting pressure on Moscow’s satellites, Europe is forced to deal with those who have real power in Belarus. Europe cannot deal with those who can pronounce quasi-democratic banalities at a school level.
