{"id":11454,"date":"2022-08-02T18:15:08","date_gmt":"2022-08-02T15:15:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/api.pozirk.online\/longreads\/pushilins-visit-minsk-struggling-to-disguise-russian-expansion\/"},"modified":"2026-02-24T20:29:13","modified_gmt":"2026-02-24T20:29:13","slug":"pushilins-visit-minsk-struggling-to-disguise-russian-expansion","status":"publish","type":"longreads","link":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/longreads\/11454\/","title":{"rendered":"Pushilin\u2019s visit: Minsk struggling to disguise Russian expansion"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\n <span>By Valeryj Karbalevi\u010d<\/span>\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t * Reproduction prohibited\n<\/p>\n<p>\n <b>The July 27 visit by separatist leader Denis Pushilin to Belarus might be an attempt by Moscow to force Minsk to officially recognize the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk People\u2019s Republics as independent states.<\/b>\n<\/p>\n<h2> <span>Belarusian leader avoids official recognition<\/span> <\/h2>\n<p>\n\t Moscow may not be pushing for the recognition of the DNR and LNR by Minsk as hard as it did before the Russian-Ukrainian war. The outcome of the war is unclear, just as the configuration of borders between Russia and Ukraine. Russia may hold referenda to establish the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia People\u2019s Republics. It may try to annex captured Ukrainian territories like Crimea.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t Therefore, the recognition of the DNR and LNR by Minsk is not a matter of principle for the Kremlin at the moment.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t Anyway, Minsk\u2019s approval of Pushilin\u2019s visit was a demonstration of loyalty to Russia. It was hardly possible before 2020 as Minsk distanced itself from Russia\u2019s aggressive policy toward Ukraine at the time.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t Still, the visit was quite strange. Belarus\u2019 state-controlled media did not cover it. Alaksandr \u0141uka\u0161enka and high-ranking officials did not meet with Pushilin. The self-proclaimed republic\u2019s leader only met with a deputy chair of the Brest Region Executive Committee.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t Minsk snubbed Pushilin, who casts himself as a head of state.\n<\/p>\n<h2> <span>Mixed signals from Minsk<\/span> <\/h2>\n<p>\n\t However strange is may seem after the start of Russia\u2019s full-scale war against Ukraine, Minsk is trying to leave some channels for communication with the West open. For instance, the Belarusian ruler gave a number of interviews to foreign journalists in the last couple of months.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t Minsk might have expected Moscow to perceive Pushilin\u2019s visit as its recognition of the DNR, and wanted the West to perceive it as a private visit by Mr. Pushilin.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t It might not be \u0141uka\u0161enka\u2019s intention to send some signal to the West in the first place. It is much more important for him now to show that he is not the Kremlin\u2019s puppet.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t He has repeatedly emphasized recently that he is the boss in Belarus. His formal recognition of the DNR and LNR would be perceived as a lack of independence not only in the West, but also in post-Soviet nations, Asia and China.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t He must be thinking now that he has outfoxed everyone and sent everyone the signal that they wanted to hear. And that everyone must be happy.\n<\/p>\n<h2> <span>Diplomatic trickery fails<\/span> <\/h2>\n<p>\n\t Pushilin\u2019s visit was an embarrassment for \u0141uka\u0161enka.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t The state media did not cover it not only because they did not want to raise the issue of DNR recognition. They did not want to draw the public\u2019s attention to the country\u2019s international isolation.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t It would be hard to sell Pushilin\u2019s hypothetical meeting with \u0141uka\u0161enka as a major diplomatic breakthrough.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t Moreover, Pushilin created a controversy with the message he posted about his visit. He described Brest as \u201can example of courage and resistance of the Russian soldier\u201d and added that \u201ctime has come to free the Russian cities founded by Russian people: Kyiv, Chernihiv, Poltava, Odessa, Dnepropetrovsk, Kharkiv, Zaporizhzhia, Lutsk.\u201d Although he stopped short of mentioning Brest, his message was outrageous even by Belarusian officials\u2019 standards.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t He wanted his visit to be perceived as a demonstration of Russian expansion to Belarusian territory. That visit in itself highlighted Belarus\u2019 huge dependence on Russia and \u0141uka\u0161enka\u2019s weakness as an independent player.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t Incidentally, the DNR leader was accompanied by Andrei Turchak, leader of Russia\u2019s pro-Putin United Russia party, and Boris Gryzlov, the Russian ambassador to Belarus. No Belarusian officials of the same rank accompanied him.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t To others it looked as if Russian officials were giving reception to a guest on Russian soil, noted Juryj Drakachrust, a Belarusian political analyst.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t Therefore, Minsk\u2019s diplomatic trickery was not very successful, not very effective and not very savvy. It has not brought Minsk any dividends. \u0141uka\u0161enka may not be happy with what actually happened.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t &nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Valeryj Karbalevi\u010d * Reproduction prohibited The July 27 visit by separatist leader Denis Pushilin to Belarus might be an attempt by Moscow to force Minsk to officially recognize the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk People\u2019s Republics as independent states. Belarusian leader avoids official recognition Moscow may not be pushing for the recognition of the DNR [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":75,"featured_media":0,"template":"","rubric":[24],"class_list":["post-11454","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>Pushilin\u2019s visit: Minsk struggling to disguise Russian expansion | Pozirk<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"By Valeryj Karbalevi\u010d * Reproduction prohibited The July 27 visit by separatist leader Denis Pushilin to Belarus might be an attempt by Moscow to force\" \/>\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\/11454\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta 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