World Socialist Web Site framed Belarus’ events as an imperialist intervention from the West. I quote:
In the likely event of a Lukashenko victory in Sunday’s election, the US and the EU—especially Germany and Poland—will act to further destabilise Belarus and the entire region as they vie with each other and with Russia for geopolitical advantage.
These manoeuvrings of the imperialist powers and their local proxies are reanimating the centuries-old national rivalries that have plagued central Europe, posing a growing threat of new conflicts in the region.
Well, Niall Green, the author, seems to have a very similar vision with the editors of Sovetskaya Belarussia (SB), the biggest state-owned newspaper in the country, the main printed mouthpiece of the presidential administration. Yesterday SB retold a report of Belarusian television, which presented Belarus’ opposition as puppets of the West. TV also played a tape of allegedly a private conversation between Viktar Karneenka, Milinkevich’s aide, and Pawel Kazanecki, director of East European Democratic Center, in which they discussed the scenarios of the protest.
I am personally a bit tired of these accusations and speculations against Belarus’ democracy fighters in the Belarusian internet. However, when international socialists express their discontent with imperialists supporting my nation’s effort to bridle the dictator, an important question should be raised. Yes, you are right, hegemon states do vie for geopolitical advantages everywhere. European Union itself has a history of internal struggle between the most important states for certain political and economic gains. This discourse is prolifically discussed by researchers of EU integration, for example through theories of intergovernmantalism and functionalism. And in Belarus case, we are stuck in between historical hegemons, Poland and Russia, even between two civilizations, if you will. We have a history of bigger nations fighting on our soil.
As for modern-day situation, when you speak of imperialism, you surely express your dissatisfaction with the Western interference with our affairs. But why do you block out the problem of Russia’s approach to the Belarus’ case?
Kremlin is often accused of the imperial syndrome. They do want a satellite state on a short leash, they do not mind keeping a dictator in power, once it was a dictator they could control. Well, I know, you, guys, have a problem with capitalism. But your hatred of it makes you complacent toward an authoritarian ruler who closed down a socialist newspaper Zhoda, imprisoned a lot of your fellow-socialists and anarchists, and this regime depends on one “imperialist” empire, anyway. Or your understanding of imperialism just equals capitalism? Check a political sciences reference book, please, or at least a Wikipedea.
And it would be important to ask why you were angry with foreign interferences but had nothing to say against the election fraud. We had no opportunity to choose, remember?
As for your argument about “a growing threat of new conflicts in the region,” much more was at stake during the Orange Revolution in Ukraine, I assume. But still, as you see, it was absolutely peaceful. I don’t think Russia and the West are about to measure swords, trying to determine who will control Belarus. The biggest destabilizing factor is the regime itself. Never before in recent history was our society as divided as now, but the division, as I see it, is between those citizens who are awake and those who are still sleeping. The former have freed their minds, and the latter are objects of Lenin-style propaganda, agitation, and control. Well, I know, some of my acquaintances in Europe who dream of “real” socialism revere this historical figure, but I am not sure they are fully aware of the methods he used to realize his philosophy. And how about modern autocrats and dictators exploiting socialistic terminology once in a while? Would their social(ist) agenda, often fake and populist, suffice for you to back them?
Yeah, and don’t get me started on Kozulin again. He calls himself a social democrat, btw.
