Page 37 - RusRPTSept22

2.13 Putin told Scholz Belarus and Ukraine should not be countries
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said Russian President Vladimir Putin told him that Belarus and Ukraine should not be sovereign states in a private conversation before the war, the German chancellor reports Bild on August 22.
He said that Putin attacked Ukraine for "absolutely absurd” reasons and repeated that Ukraine’s accession to Nato has never been on the agenda.
“Nato has never been a threat to Russia,” Scholz said, in response to accusations that Nato has never paid attention to Russia’s security concerns. The chancellor said that he personally assured Putin that Ukraine's accession to Nato was, " not planned for the next 30 years,” during negotiations before the start of the war.
According to Scholz, the Russian president had "completely absurd ideas" and said that “Belarus and Ukraine, in fact, should not be independent, sovereign states” Scholz met with Putin for the last time a little more than a week before the start of the war on February 15, when he visited Moscow. A telephone conversation between the heads of the two countries took place in December last year.
Analysts say that Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko understands he is in danger of losing control of his country, but after siding with Moscow since the rigged presidential elections in August two years ago he has no alternatives as Belarus has become completely dependent on Russia for support.
Dmitry Stratievsky, the political scientist and director of the Berlin-based Center for East European Studies, said in an interview with Bild that if Russia is defeated in Ukraine or fails to achieve at least one of its goals, Belarus might fall victim to Putin's need to present a success story domestically, the Kyiv independent reports.
2.14 Putin & government’s popularity
Trust in Putin dipped below 30% for the first time in July, suggesting that his approval (which remained high) was “hollowing out” and that he was starting to lose the confidence even of core supporters.
37 RUSSIA Country Report September 2022 www.intellinews.com