Page 59 - bneMag February 2021_20210202

bne February 2021 Eastern Europe I 59
Leaked documents show the Kremlin has plans to set up a pro-Russia Belarusian party and transition the country to a parliamentary democracy as a solution to the current political crisis
THE INSIDER
Kremlin creating pro-Russia party in Belarus
where Putin also announced Russia would extend a $1.5bn loan to Belarus.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov followed up with another meeting with Lukashenko in Minsk on November
26, when he publicly berated him, reminding him to “keep your promise” on pushing through the constitutional changes.
The Belarusian opposition has also called for a change to the constitution, but opposition leader Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, the nominal winner
for the presidential elections in August, has called for a return to the 1994 constitution that includes term limits
of the president. The opposition has also insisted that any reconciliation process must begin with Lukashenko stepping down as president and the appointment of a transition government to organise new presidential elections.
The two versions of the constitutional changes are likely to be very different. The Insider published documents from Russia’s President’s Office for Interregional and Cultural Relations with Foreign Countries. It is headed by foreign intelligence expert General Vladimir Chernov.
The first of the papers described the “Operational Strategy in the Republic of Belarus”. It was prepared in September 2020, reports The Insider.
Ben Aris in Berlin
The Kremlin is preparing to launch and support a pro-Russia political party in Belarus called “The Right of the People” that will take advantage of mooted changes to the constitution that will lead to fresh parliamentary elections.
Russian news site The Insider reported on December 22 it has obtained documents claiming that Russia is going to intervene comprehensively in the internal politics of Belarus. The documents also show that the Kremlin is fully involved in drawing up the changes to the constitution.
Belarus' self-appointed President Alexander Lukashenko has said many times in the past that the constitution needs reform, but until the protests began following the disputed August 9 presidential election this suggestion was seen largely as a sop to the population and was not expected to bring any meaningful change to the way in which the country was run.
That has changed since the protests began as the Kremlin sees the changes as a way of defusing the stand-off and a convenient way to easing Lukashenko out of office, or at least reducing his power, while at the same
“Russia is going to intervene comprehensively in the internal politics of Belarus and is fully involved in drawing up the changes to the constitution”
time placating the population by giving them more representation in the political process.
While few details have been released, clearly a deal of some sort was cut between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Lukashenko during their meeting in Sochi on September 14,
“Its authors write about the need to penetrate the governing bodies of all opposition structures in Belarus and about the formation of a base for
a future party or political movement. In addition, the paper talks about creating its own channels for the dissemination of information, such as Telegram channels and YouTube
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