January 5, Pozirk. Gradual massive Russification of Belarus and its Sovietization by [Alaksandar] Łukašenka’s puppet regime, especially after 2020, are threatening Belarusian statehood, said Ukrainian political expert Vitaly Portnikov.
The Belarusian state will cease to exist as a result of these policies while Russians will assimilate Belarusians, he told Ukraine’s Feygin Live show.
Belarus cannot be considered a sovereign state despite still having formal statehood attributes, he noted, comparing its actual status to that of a Russian region. It may be even “less sovereign than the Chechen Republic [as Ramzan] Kadyrov has more opportunities than Łukašenka,” Portnikov said.
Russian leaders want to treat Ukraine in the same way, he added, referring to Russia’s full-scale war on Ukraine in which the Belarusian authorities supported the Kremlin.
