{"id":11398,"date":"2022-04-18T12:00:22","date_gmt":"2022-04-18T09:00:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/api.pozirk.online\/longreads\/minsk-keeps-up-its-anti-western-rhetorical-attacks-but-makiejs-letter-exposes-its-duplicity\/"},"modified":"2026-02-24T20:29:13","modified_gmt":"2026-02-24T20:29:13","slug":"minsk-keeps-up-its-anti-western-rhetorical-attacks-but-makiejs-letter-exposes-its-duplicity","status":"publish","type":"longreads","link":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/longreads\/11398\/","title":{"rendered":"Minsk keeps up its anti-Western rhetorical attacks, but Makiej\u2019s letter exposes its duplicity"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"background: white\">\n <span style=\"color: #212529\"><span>By Aliaksandr Klasko\u016dski, BPN<\/span><\/span>\n<\/p>\n<p style=\"background: white\">\n <span><span style=\"color: #212529\">* Reprinting is allowed<\/span><\/span>\n<\/p>\n<h4 style=\"background: white\"> <span><span style=\"color: #212529\">Duplicity<\/span><\/span> <\/h4>\n<p style=\"background: white\">\n <span style=\"color: #212529\">The Aliaksandr Luka\u0161enka regime has been targeted by international sanctions for providing Belarusian territory and infrastructure for the Russian assault on Ukraine. The Belarusian ruler realizes that he may be held accountable for war crimes, but he does not have courage to demand that Russian troops leave Belarus. <\/span>\n<\/p>\n<p style=\"background: white\">\n <span style=\"color: #212529\">Minsk\u2019s recent overture to the West has exposed the regime\u2019s duplicity. On the one hand, Luka\u0161enka curries favor with Vladimir Putin, plays down sanctions and verbally abuses Western diplomats, likening them to fascists. <\/span>\n<\/p>\n<p style=\"background: white\">\n <span style=\"color: #212529\">On the other, the Belarusian foreign minister has appealed to the European Union to engage in a dialogue on future ties. <\/span>\n<\/p>\n<p style=\"background: white\">\n <span style=\"color: #212529\">Minsk denies its involvement in the Russian military campaign against Ukraine, although Russian forces have launched missiles and entered Ukraine from Belarus. <\/span>\n<\/p>\n<p style=\"background: white\">\n <span style=\"color: #212529\">Uladzimir Makiej described what happened after the August 2020 election \u2013 the Belarusian government\u2019s crackdown on dissidents and tension with the West over Belarus\u2019 complicity in the Russian aggression \u2013 as an unfortunate sequence of events. <\/span>\n<\/p>\n<h4 style=\"background: white\"> <span><span style=\"color: #212529\">Luka<\/span><\/span><span><span style=\"color: #212529\">\u0161<\/span><\/span><span><span style=\"color: #212529\">enka<\/span><\/span><span><span style=\"color: #212529\"> <\/span><\/span><span><span style=\"color: #212529\">denounces<\/span><\/span><span><span style=\"color: #212529\"> <\/span><\/span><span><span style=\"color: #212529\">Western<\/span><\/span><span><span style=\"color: #212529\"> <\/span><\/span><span><span style=\"color: #212529\">sanctions<\/span><\/span> <\/h4>\n<p style=\"background: white\">\n <span style=\"color: #212529\">Luka\u0161enka visited Khatyn, a World War II memorial some 40 kilometers off Minsk, on April 16 to take part in a national subbotnik, a day of unpaid labor. <\/span>\n<\/p>\n<p style=\"background: white\">\n <span style=\"color: #212529\">He seized the opportunity to renew his rhetorical attacks on the West. He recalled that the presidents of Austria and Germany had visited the Trascianiec memorial near Minsk in 2018. <\/span><span style=\"color: #212529\">\u201c<\/span><span style=\"color: #212529\">It<\/span><span style=\"color: #212529\"> <\/span><span style=\"color: #212529\">seemed<\/span><span style=\"color: #212529\"> <\/span><span style=\"color: #212529\">that<\/span><span style=\"color: #212529\"> <\/span><span style=\"color: #212529\">was<\/span><span style=\"color: #212529\"> <\/span><span style=\"color: #212529\">it<\/span><span style=\"color: #212529\">. <\/span><span style=\"color: #212529\">They blessed our land and they would never touch this holy place with their dirty hands. Next thing you know is sanctions, sanctions, sanctions.\u201d<\/span>\n<\/p>\n<p style=\"background: white\">\n <span style=\"color: #212529\">A few days earlier, Ivan Ejsmant, head of the Belarusian Television and Radio Company, said that after World War II genocide the Germans \u201cshould shut up and engage in economic activity\u201d in Belarus. <\/span>\n<\/p>\n<p style=\"background: white\">\n <span style=\"color: #212529\">Belarusian officials often make the point that the West has no right to criticize Belarus for human rights abuses or anything else because of what the Belarusians went through during World War II. Moreover, they want the West to shut up and invest in the Belarusian economy. <\/span>\n<\/p>\n<p style=\"background: white\">\n <span style=\"color: #212529\">Germany today is not the Third Reich. The Germans acknowledged the atrocities and made a huge effort to reconcile with Nazi victims. Germany has established a genuine democracy and helped Belarus deal with the consequences of the Chernobyl nuclear accident. <\/span>\n<\/p>\n<p style=\"background: white\">\n <span style=\"color: #212529\">Meanwhile, Luka\u0161enka glorifies Joseph Stalin and his totalitarian system, which was similar to Adolf Hitler\u2019s regime. He has introduced Stalin-era practices into the Belarusian repressive system. <\/span>\n<\/p>\n<p style=\"background: white\">\n <span style=\"color: #212529\">It should be noted that sanctions have been imposed not only by Berlin, but also anti-Hitler coalition countries. Therefore, the notion that West is a Nazi successor is frankly preposterous. <\/span>\n<\/p>\n<p style=\"background: white\">\n <span style=\"color: #212529\">Officials use World War II allusions to demonize their critics but keep silent on war horrors that are taking place in neighboring Ukraine. They pretend to have nothing to do with killings of people by missiles launched from Belarus.<\/span>\n<\/p>\n<h4 style=\"background: white\"> <span><span style=\"color: #212529;border-width: 1pt;border-color: windowtext;background: white\">Luka\u0161enka turns fire on Western diplomats<\/span><\/span> <\/h4>\n<p style=\"background: white\">\n <span style=\"color: #212529\">Speaking at the Khatyn memorial, Luka\u0161enka promised to expose a plot by Western diplomats. \u201cWe will summarize the documentary evidence and show it to you, what they are doing here. You<\/span><span style=\"color: #212529\"> <\/span><span style=\"color: #212529\">will<\/span><span style=\"color: #212529\"> <\/span><span style=\"color: #212529\">be<\/span><span style=\"color: #212529\"> <\/span><span style=\"color: #212529\">shocked<\/span><span style=\"color: #212529\">. <\/span><span style=\"color: #212529\">They are not even acting like some kind of nats [nationalists] here, they are acting like fascists, what they do here in Belarus. It is manifested in sanctions and pressure on Belarus.\u201d <\/span>\n<\/p>\n<p style=\"background: white\">\n <span style=\"color: #212529\">The remaining few Western diplomats who are still present in Belarus exercise caution and are aware that they are closely watched by Belarusian security services.<\/span>\n<\/p>\n<p style=\"background: white\">\n <span style=\"color: #212529\">Based on Luka\u0161enka\u2019s tirade, he is simply unhappy that diplomatic missions inform their governments of abuses by his regime prompting them to introduce restrictive measures. <\/span>\n<\/p>\n<p style=\"background: white\">\n <span style=\"color: #212529\">Meanwhile, Makiej described events that began with killings and torture of protesters by Belarusian security forces and were followed by the Russian invasion of Ukraine, including from Belarusian territory, as an unfortunate sequence of events that took Belarus and the EU back \u201calmost into the Ice Age.\u201d<\/span>\n<\/p>\n<p style=\"background: white\">\n <span style=\"color: #212529;border-width: 1pt;border-color: windowtext;background: white\">Makiej, however, stopped short of promising the withdrawal of Russian troops from Belarus or the release of political prisoners. Clearly, Minsk no longer has any power to decide on Russian troops presence in Belarus, while the regime is afraid to free political prisoners for fear of a new uprising. <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Aliaksandr Klasko\u016dski, BPN * Reprinting is allowed Duplicity The Aliaksandr Luka\u0161enka regime has been targeted by international sanctions for providing Belarusian territory and infrastructure for the Russian assault on Ukraine. The Belarusian ruler realizes that he may be held accountable for war crimes, but he does not have courage to demand that Russian troops [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":75,"featured_media":0,"template":"","rubric":[22],"class_list":["post-11398","longreads","type-longreads","status-publish","hentry","rubric-theviewer"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Minsk keeps up its anti-Western rhetorical attacks, but Makiej\u2019s letter exposes its duplicity | Pozirk<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"By Aliaksandr Klasko\u016dski, BPN * Reprinting is allowed Duplicity The Aliaksandr Luka\u0161enka regime has been targeted by international sanctions for providing\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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