Showing that he won’t be pushed around by the European Union [EU], 67-year-old Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko rejects EU pressure to take North African and Mideast refugees. EU officials accused Lukashenko to forcing thousands of migrants to leave Belarus to seek refuge in the EU, when, in reality, those same migrants want not part of Belarus, always sought to immigrate to the EU. Lukashenko sees the EU and U.S. as meddling with Minsk, seeking to topple his Kremlin-backed government. Lukashenko made the headlines when he forced down a RyanAir June 25 to arrest 26-year-old dissident Roman Prostasevich, whose blog on the Telegram channel Nexta mobilized mass demonstrations against the Lukashenko regime. U.S. and EU officials seek to topple Lukashenko, prompting strong support from 69-year-old Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Poland’s 49-year-old conservative President Andrzej Duda doesn’t appreciate the influx of immigrants from Belarus, having little sympathy to the EU when it comes to immigration quotas. So, no matter how much the EU wants to pit Poland and Belarus, Duda completely agrees with Lukashenko that North African and Mideast refugees are not welcome in Poland or Belarus. Immigration issues during the height to the Syria War practically broke up the EU, with countries like Poland, Czech Republic and Hungary sealing their borders, defying Brussels’ demands to accept more refugees from war-torn countries. Former German Chancellor Angela Merkel cause a big stir in Germany taking some one million refugees, drawing flack from conservative German politicians, especially in Baravria , antagonizing former Bavaria President Horst Seehofer. EU states still battle over refugee quotas.
Putin has poured his military resources into Belarus, shoring up Lukashenko’s stranglehold on power. Lukashenko’s arrest of Protasevich was backed wholeheartedly by Putin who did the same thing with Kremlin dissident Alexi Navalny arrested June 18 at the Moscow Sheremetyevo Airport. Navalny, whose nationwide opposition network rankled Putin, made him a target of arrest and confinement. Navalny, much to the chagrin of the U.S. and EU remains in a Russian gulag, with little end to his two-year-ten-month prison sentence. Putin, far more than Protasevich, sees Navalny has a threat to his rule over the Russian Federation. Putin knows, no matter what the fake diplomacy with the U.S. and EU, they seek to sabotage his rule of power by whatever means. U.S. and EU officials like to accuse Putin of meddling in U.S. and EU internal affairs, including elections, but it’s entirely the opposite. EU and U.S. want Putin out.
Whether admitted to or not, the U.S. and EU, meddle in Russian internal affairs, especially when it comes to Ukraine. U.S. and EU officials sanctioned Putin for invading Crimea March 1, 2014 but they fail to admit they used the CIA to topple the Kremlin-backed government of Viktor Yanukovych. So when the EU and U.S. blame Putin for aggression in Ukraine, they deny their own role in toppling the duly elected government of Yanukovych. No one in the EU or NATO has the stomach to confront Putin on the battlefield in Ukraine, yet all claim Putin’s the aggressor. Since taking office Jan. 20, 78-year-old President Joe Biden has done everything possible to alienate Putin, calling him a “soulless killer,” March 16. Biden’s diplomacy with China hasn’t been much better. So when it comes to Lukashenko in Belarus, the U.S. and EU accuse the Kremlin-backed leader human rights abuses.
Responding to EU threats to shut down the border with Belarus, Lukashenko said how would the EU like if he shut down the Yamal natural gas pipeline, carrying natural gas from Russia to the EU? “We are heating Europe, they are still threatening us that they will close the border. And if we shout off natural gas there?” Lukashenko said, not sure how Putin would respond to a loss of revenue. “Therefore, I would recommend that the Polish leadership, Lithuanians and other headless people think before speaking,” Lukashenko said. Poland has problems with Belarus allowing North African and Mideast and refugees to cross into Poland. Poland practically pulled out of the EU when Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron pressure Warsaw to take more immigrants. EU officials tried but failed to pressure Poland, the Czech Republic and Hungary to take bigger quotas of refugees.
Biden and his 58-year-old Secretary of State Tony Blinken’s diplomacy has been abysmal since taking office. Russia and China barely talk to the U.S. knowing they both face relentless complaints on human rights or on Moscow and Beijing’s aggressive military actions. Lukashenko isn’t likely to cut the natural gas spigot to Poland, primarily because Russia depends on the income. At the same time, for the U.S. and EU to get along with Russia and China, they need to turn a new page, away from the recriminations about Crimea and treatment of Muslim Uyghurs. Russia and China have their own internal issues independent of problems with the U.S. and EU. Instead of antagonizing two of the world’s most influential powers, Biden and Blinken should turn over a new leaf, park the criticism at the door and start the difficult process of diplomacy needed for world peace.
