{"id":11412,"date":"2022-05-12T10:00:32","date_gmt":"2022-05-12T07:00:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/api.pozirk.online\/longreads\/lukasenka-angered-by-lack-of-response-from-west-to-his-overtures\/"},"modified":"2026-02-24T20:29:13","modified_gmt":"2026-02-24T20:29:13","slug":"lukasenka-angered-by-lack-of-response-from-west-to-his-overtures","status":"publish","type":"longreads","link":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/longreads\/11412\/","title":{"rendered":"Luka\u0161enka angered by lack of response from West to his overtures"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\n <span>By Valieryj Karbalievi\u010d<\/span>\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t &nbsp;\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t * Reproduction prohibited\n<\/p>\n<p>\n <b>Russia and Belarus celebrated Victory Day on May 9, 10 weeks after Russia invaded Ukraine. Russian officials often cite the Soviet victory in the Great Patriotic War (part of World War II involving the Soviet Union) to justify the assault.<\/b>\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t In Belarus, Aliaksandr Luka\u0161enka cast himself as a successor to the Soviet victory over the Nazis to justify dictatorship, and demonized his opponents as Nazis.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t It was not a surprise that Belarusian and Russian officials seized the opportunity to portray the barbaric war against Ukraine as the continuation of the Soviet war against Nazi Germany.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t In their speeches, Vladimir Putin and Luka\u0161enka drew a surrealistic picture of Russia and Belarus standing up against the global Nazism.\n<\/p>\n<h2> <span>Putin denies Ukraine\u2019s existence<\/span> <\/h2>\n<p>\n\t In his address, Putin said that the Russian army was fighting \u201con its soil.\u201d In his view, Ukraine does not exist and Ukraine is Russia\u2019s territory.\n<\/p>\n<h2> <span>Luka\u0161enka lashes out at Kyiv, West<\/span> <\/h2>\n<p>\n\t The Belarusian ruler delivered arguably the most anti-Western and anti-Ukrainian address in his political career. A week before, he had emphasized the need to stop the war in an interview with AP.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t On May 9, he appealed to Western people, claiming that their governments deceived them and that he was the only one telling them truth. That was an attempt to reanimate Soviet propaganda methods. The Soviet Union appealed to workers in capitalist countries to stand up against their oppressors.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t However, Luka\u0161enka\u2019s message could hardly find a receptive audience outside Belarus and Russia.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t He was very aggressive in his attacks on Ukraine, describing the Ukrainian leaders as fascists and Ukraine\u2019s state ideology as Nazism. \u201cThe Nazi battalions exterminate their people on ethnic grounds.\u201d Luka\u0161enka reprised the weirdest Russian propaganda narratives.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t Belarusians have no other choice but to support Russia, he said, noting that about 50 countries have rallied against Russia.\n<\/p>\n<h2> <span>Frustration with failure to reach out<\/span> <\/h2>\n<p>\n\t Luka\u0161enka seems to be angry at the West for its reluctance to engage with him and for sanctions imposed on his regime over its complicity in the Russian invasion.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t He was infuriated by the G7 leader\u2019s statement stressing the importance of holding &#8220;the architects and accomplices of this aggression, including the Luka\u0161enka regime in Belarus, accountable for their actions in accordance with international law.\u201d\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t He was annoyed by Western ambassadors\u2019 reluctance to attend Victory Day celebrations.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t He used his speech to shift the blame for Belarusians\u2019 imminent economic hardship to the West, alleging that it seeks to force Slavic people into slavery.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t In general, Luka\u0161enka was his natural self, a true fighter against Western civilization. He did not pretend; he did not have to cast himself as a peaceful guy and a \u201cdonor\u201d of regional security as he did in 2014-19.\n<\/p>\n<h2> <span>Above the people<\/span> <\/h2>\n<p>\n\t This year\u2019s festivities in Minsk drew more people than in previous years. Some sources reported that authorities made attendance compulsory for workers as Luka\u0161enka tries to prove that the masses support him, not his opponents, even after massive post-election protests.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t He did not take part in the march, although he had taken part in Victory Day marches before. He is no longer together with the people, he is above the people. He waved to greet them and observed their response.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t When laying flowers at Victory Monument, Luka\u0161enka walked first, followed by his three sons. Other officials approached the monument after the family. The ceremony was illustrative of the Belarusian hierarchy.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t The Luka\u0161enka regime gives political opponents harsh sentences chillingly reminiscent of Josef Stalin\u2019s terror campaign. The Stalin-style terror should be accompanied by a cult of personality. The personalistic regime takes a complete form and brings itself into full harmony with its authoritarian substance.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Valieryj Karbalievi\u010d &nbsp; * Reproduction prohibited Russia and Belarus celebrated Victory Day on May 9, 10 weeks after Russia invaded Ukraine. Russian officials often cite the Soviet victory in the Great Patriotic War (part of World War II involving the Soviet Union) to justify the assault. In Belarus, Aliaksandr Luka\u0161enka cast himself as a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":75,"featured_media":0,"template":"","rubric":[22],"class_list":["post-11412","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>Luka\u0161enka angered by lack of response from West to his overtures | Pozirk<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"By Valieryj Karbalievi\u010d &nbsp; * Reproduction prohibited Russia and Belarus celebrated Victory Day on May 9, 10 weeks after Russia invaded Ukraine.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/longreads\/11412\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Luka\u0161enka angered by lack of response from West to his overtures | Pozirk\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Valieryj Karbalievi\u010d &nbsp; 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