Ukrainian interest. Flexible Lukashenko, promising Duda and Russian absurdity

Presidential campaign forces even the authoritarian politicians, like Aleksandr Lukashenko, to broaden contacts with the media.

Aleksandr Lukashenko assured that Ukraine should not fear Russian aggression from its border with Belarus. Andrzej Duda was sworn in as President of Poland. The Kremlin keep excelling  in absurd politics.

Elections can force even authoritarian politicians talk to the media / Photo from UNIAN

Presidential campaign forces even authoritarian politics, like Aleksandr Lukashenko, to broaden contacts with the media. The only president in the country’s modern history has held a working meeting with representatives of the independent media. Lukashenko could not help needling Ukraine over the loss of Crimea, but he assured that the territory of Belarus would never be used for invasion in Ukraine.

Due to the conflict in Donbas Lukashnko managed to jump back into the foreign political spotlight / Photo from UNIAN

It is easy to understand the Belarusian president: his country is trying to maneuver between the global powers in the wake of the ongoing crisis in eastern Ukrainian Donbas. Minsk used this confrontation to return to European politics, becoming a venue for talks on the prospects of the peace settlement, and Lukashenko will further try to maintain his status of a peacemaker and mediator.

REUTERS

By the way, the last round of talks of the Trilateral Liaison Group saw virtually without no result. The next high-profile talks are unlikely to start until late August, and this suggests that Russia is seeking to use the delay in Minsk to escalate the situation in Ukraine. It is worth mentioning that it was Ukrainian side which  voiced the idea to withdraw from the contact line weapons of an under 100mm caliber, according to Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin. The country’s top diplomat said Russia was not interested in resolving the conflict in Donbas. No wonder, because the Kremlin is the only warmonger in the east of Ukraine.

REUTERS

Russia keeps excelling in absurdity by molding an atmosphere of a beseiged fortress in the world’s largest country. And not only about the incineration of sanctioned foodstuffs from the EU approved personally by Vladimir Putin – we will be witnessing many more tragicomic scenes as this regulation will be implemented. There was also Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov saying that the investigation into the MH17 crash has been lopsided and biased, and there was Speaker of the State Duma Sergei Naryshkin calling for setting up a tribunal to punish the initiators of the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. It seems that the denial of the obvious becomes the basis of Russia's state policy.

REUTERS

The Kremlin has a new hardline opponent in Europe:  Polish president Andrzej Duda, representative of the Law and Justice party was sworn in this week. The public will hardly let him forget about the terrible tragedy over Russia’s Smolensk – the aircrash, which killed President Lech Kaczynski along with Polish elite. Duda is going to lobby the extension of the format of negotiations on the Donbas peace settlement, with the possibility of creating a Baltic-Black Sea Union, aimed at playing a stabilizing role on the continent.

Yevgeny Magda

UNIAN in Google News