Ukraine parliament condemns Belarus actions, calls for dialogue

Ukraine’s parliament voted on Sept. 15 to approve a
resolution condemning the actions of the Belarusian government against its
people and its methods in resolving the conflict, calling for it to begin a
“civilized and democratic dialogue with society with the goal of resolving the
crisis situation that has emerged in the country.” The Belarus presidential
elections, held on Aug. 9, were neither free nor fair but such that occurred
with many significant violations, according to the resolution, which was
approved by 228 MPs compared to 226 needed. The officially published election
results don’t reflect the real will of the Belarus citizenry and peaceful
protests throughout the country are being suppressed by the Belarus government,
the resolution said. It condemned as unacceptable the government’s involvement
of the forces of the Russian government and the Collective Security Treaty
Organization to normalize the situation and called for resolving the crisis by
involving independent international mediators.

Ukrainian President Zelensky also called for dialogue
between the Belarusian government and the public during a Sept. 15 press
conference. “It seems to me the Belarusian government should find in any
situation a path to find dialogue with its people, which elected it and made
them officials or presidents. It’s precisely them whom all presidents serve,
and them for whom we all work. So a dialogue should be found,” he said. Ukraine
has declared the bloodshed to be unacceptable since the very start of the
crisis, he said. At the same time, Ukraine doesn’t want to interfere in
Belarus’s domestic politics, he said. “I am confident that any country is
supposed to act in the same way, about whose interference we hear about
sometimes from various mass media,” he said.

The same day, the E.U.’s foreign affairs minister,
Josep Borrell, told the European parliament the Aug. 9 elections were falsified
and Aleksandr Lukashenko is not the legitimate president of Belarus. The E.U.
is preparing personal sanctions against the Belarusian government ahead of the
next meeting of the European Council, he said. “If the situation in Belarus
worsens, we will expand the sanctions,” he said, as reported by the eurointegration.com.ua
news site.

Zenon Zawada: The
statements of Zelensky and parliament, led by the pro-presidential People’s
Servant faction, reflect their foreign policy of solidarity with the E.U.,
while pursuing a détente with Moscow by withholding direct support for the
Western-backed opposition in Belarus. It’s quite revealing that neither
statement uses words like “repressions” or “persecution.” Yet the situation
that Lukashenko currently finds himself in should serve as a valuable lesson
for Zelensky and his allies, particularly since they are trying to imitate his
foreign policy of playing Russia and the West off each other.

In accepting the Russian USD 1.5 bln loan during his
meeting with President Putin on Sept. 14, Lukashenko is widely believed to have
agreed to not only eventually step down as president (in exchange for a
ceremonial position), but also to endorse constitutional changes likely
resulting in integrating Belarus closer to Russia. This is Lukashenko’s
“reward” for defying the Russians in recent years on matters like energy
prices.

This development reflects how trying to use the West
for its resources (natural gas in Lukashenko’s case, IMF loans in Zelensky’s
case) – without building up solid Western institutions of rule of law and
democracy domestically – will ultimately leave both Belarus and Ukraine
vulnerable to Russian expansionism. The Western powers have consistently
demonstrated that they will not compromise their key institutions of rule of
law and democratic elections just to keep Belarus and Ukraine out of Russia’s
geopolitical sphere. This was the case with former Ukrainian President
Yanukovych (and his imprisonment of then-opposition leader Tymoshenko), and now
it is the case with Lukashenko.

If Zelensky continues to allow pro-Russian forces
to gradually seize control of key government bodies and democratic institutions
(like the mass media), and if he continues to allow the dismantling of rule of
law in Ukraine, he will find himself in the same position as Lukashenko. That
is, being pressured to abdicate power while surrendering the country to Russian
control. Zelensky is on that path.