Fridman: Lukashenka has made his choice: we are with Russia before the war, during and after

Alexander Lukashenko again came to Moscow to Vladimir Putin. This was their first meeting after the announcement of the deployment of Russian nuclear weapons on the territory of our country. On April 5, negotiations between Putin and Lukashenko dragged on “long after midnight,” but the details of their communication were not disclosed.

On April 6, both took part in a meeting of the Supreme State Council (SSC) of the Union State of Belarus and Russia, where they touched upon the topics of state security and expansion of cooperation.

Political columnist Alexander Fridman thinksthat the main topic of Lukashenka’s visit to Putin remained an intrigue.

“This topic concerns the deployment and the mechanism for the use of nuclear weapons,” Friedman is sure. – Actually, this should have been the most interesting result of the visit. Otherwise, Putin and Lukashenko create the impression of complete harmony, as if everything is fine. Everything was standard: a clear division of roles, Lukashenka allowed himself scandalous statements. The usual rhetoric that flows in Russian propaganda is about NATO at the borders and so on.

The expert drew attention to Lukashenka’s phrase during a meeting of the Supreme State Council of the Union State that the confrontation with the West is for a long time and will continue after the war.

– This suggests that they live in the paradigm of war, which will go from hot to cold over time. Relations with the West, if they exist at all, will remain very bad. Putin and Lukashenko are setting themselves up for a long-term confrontation. Any softening of relations with the West does not fit into this context. Lukashenka has made his choice: we are with Russia – before the war, during and after, – Alexander Fridman believes.

The expert also analyzed Lukashenka’s phrase that they “should not lose the battle for the minds.” According to Fridman, this “battle” is very worrying for Lukashenka, because he intuitively understands that his ideology is already “naphthalene” and archaic.

– It should be noted that Putin and Lukashenko constantly create the impression that everything is fine with them and they are not working in emergency mode. War as a topic is not present at all, it is deliberately left out of the brackets. Perhaps they didn’t want to throw this topic into the public space, because there’s nothing special to brag about, says Friedman. – Another unvoiced topic is a warrant for Putin’s arrest. Lukashenka could show solidarity, but he does not. He probably knows that this topic is unpleasant for Putin. And he himself understands that if a warrant was issued for the arrest of Putin, then who is he compared to him.

Alexander Fridman regards Lukashenka’s words about the “destruction of nuclear weapons” as the thesis of Soviet propaganda. The expert recalled how in the 1970s the USSR deployed missiles with nuclear warheads in the countries of the Eastern bloc, to which NATO responded by deploying its weapons in some states of the Alliance. The propaganda of the USSR then preferred not to mention its missiles, but promoted the same thesis that Lukashenka does today.

“They say that nuclear weapons are very bad, we need to get rid of them, but due to the fault of the West, we cannot do this and are forced to have these weapons. These are the stamps of that time that Lukashenka, as a Soviet propagandist, is repeating now,” explains Fridman. – More important here is the threat that sounded from him on March 31: that we will use anything for protection. I think the West heard it.