Another Country, Same People: Supporters Of 2014 Coup In Ukraine Are Now With Belarusian Opposition

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Alexander Lukashenko. Click to see full-size image

More and more well-known agents of the neo-liberal Western agenda appear to be involved in regime-change efforts in Belarus.

Belarusian opposition leader Svetlana Tikhanovskaya appears to be receiving more welcome help in her fight against Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko. A photograph was published of her, together with Bernard-Henri Lévy. He is, among many other things, famous for his assistance in Kiev during the Euromaidan in February 2014.

He was actively promoting the events.

In February 2015, he performed his play Hotel Europa at the Kiev opera house on the first anniversary of the Euromaidan’s toppling of the pro-Russian government of Victor Yanukovich.

He is a well-known agent of “Western-assisted” regime change, with proven success in Ukraine.

Svetlana Tikhanovskaya (L), Bernard-Henri Lévy (R)

He made a few calls to counter “Russian aggression” – such as to suspend any European participation in the Sochi games back in Winter 2014.

“There is still time, but very quickly, to threaten Yanukovych with sanctions which the European Union holds ready, but without resolving to apply them. There is still time, if the anti-riot soldiery does not back down, to ban Yanukovych and his family from entering the territory of all the countries of the European Union. There is still time, if an end to the violence is not immediately decreed, to make it known loud and clear, by naming them, to the few oligarchs who control this murderous regime that their assets will be frozen without delay. And there is still time, finally, to convince the French Olympic Committee, Jean-Claude Killy and all the French athletes present in Sochi to go on strike for the Games as long as blood will flow on the Maidan,” Lévy said in his emotion-filled address.

Then a few years passed after the ‘successful” Maidan and in January 2019 the fight for Europe needed to begin once again.

“Europe is being attacked by false prophets who are drunk on resentment, and delirious at their opportunity to seize the limelight. It has been abandoned by the two great allies who in the previous century twice saved it from suicide; one across the Channel and the other across the Atlantic. The continent is vulnerable to the increasingly brazen meddling by the occupant of the Kremlin. Europe as an idea is falling apart before our eyes,” his new address read back then.

He is supported by a group of ‘European patriots’ who attempt to enforce the European idea even on those who don’t specifically wish to follow it.

These include: Vassilis Alexakis (Athens), Svetlana Alexievich (Minsk), Anne Applebaum (Warsaw), Jens Christian Grøndahl (Copenhagen), David Grossman (Jerusalem), Ágnes Heller (Budapest), Ismaïl Kadaré (Tirana), György Konrád (Debrecen), António Lobo Antunes (Lisbon), Claudio Magris (Trieste), Ian McEwan (London), Adam Michnik (Warsaw), Herta Müller (Berlin), Ludmila Oulitskaïa (Moscow), Rob Riemen (Amsterdam), Fernando Savater (San Sebastián), Roberto Saviano (Naples), Eugenio Scalfari (Rome), Simon Schama (London), Peter Schneider (Berlin), Abdulah Sidran (Sarajevo), Leïla Slimani (Paris), Colm Tóibín (Dublin), Mario Vargas Llosa (Madrid), Adam Zagajewski (Cracow).

Of course, the evil masses that plan to cause this “looming catastrophe.”

“In response to the nationalist and identitarian onslaught, we must rediscover the spirit of activism or accept that resentment and hatred will surround and submerge us. Urgently, we need to sound the alarm against these arsonists of soul and spirit who, from Paris to Rome, with stops along the way in Barcelona, Budapest, Dresden, Vienna and Warsaw, want to make a bonfire of our freedoms.”

This was prior to the European Parliamentary elections in May 2019, when the crisis was looming over the horizon. It wasn’t entirely avoided, since many nationalists won, but it turned out it didn’t matter.

“This is the noxious climate in which Europe’s parliamentary elections will take place in May. Unless something changes; unless something comes along to turn back the rising, swelling, insistent tide; unless a new spirit of resistance emerges, these elections promise to be the most calamitous that we have known. They will give a victory to the wreckers. For those who still believe in the legacy of Erasmus, Dante, Goethe and Comenius there will be only ignominious defeat. A politics of disdain for intelligence and culture will have triumphed. There will be explosions of xenophobia and antisemitism. Disaster will have befallen us.”

Now it is likely that another emotion-filled call to action will be released by Lévy, attempting to urge the Belarusian people and others to counter the “Russian aggressor” and the nationalists, and become a part of the big, happy, Trans-Atlantic family.

Lévy is also one of the signatories, among other liberal elites, on Mikhail Khodorkovsky’s call for Russia to stop its political repressions inside and outside of the country.

It was published almost a year ago. Since Russia, according to them suffered from chronic repression, and no actual political opposition, this was a threat not only to Russia, but to every democracy around the world.

“It is obvious that such actions are dangerous not only for the inhabitants of Russia, but also for the whole world. We call on everyone who cares about democracy and human rights to take immediate action to stop the lawlessness perpetrated by President Putin’s regime. His actions are unacceptable, and his connivance or manifestation of weakness in relation to this regime poses a threat to democracy around the world.

In particular, we must take an uncompromising position in relation to those residents of democratic states who are helping President Putin and his accomplices to launder the capital stolen from Russia. Bankers, lobbyists, politicians and consultants must acknowledge that any help given to these officials and their accomplices is a clear crime (and is often paid for with money of criminal origin).”

Additionally, Ukrainian ‘public organizations’, media outlets and even top officils, which are integrated in the political system created in the post-coup Ukraine, actively support the Belarusian opposition. The role of Euro-Atlantic forces, including the US and the EU, that were the main backers of the coup in Ukraine, is also not even a secret.

And if it seemed that Alexander Lukashenko was losing the propaganda war so far, things are obviously still in their initial stages and are about to ramp up.

In another piece of propaganda, from state-funded Voice of America, a producer of Belarusian TV channel ‘Belarus-3’ claimed that all employees who are dissatisfied with the elections on August 9^th are being added to a “black list” and will be replaced by Russian journalists.

The director of the Belarusian state television channel said she and other striking workers were not allowed to continue their work.

In a video posted on the Belarusian news site TUT.BY the journalist introduces herself as Alena Martinovskaya, director of the state television and radio channel Belarus-3. She said that the security guard did not let her into the building of the TV company, saying that she was “blacklisted”.

Martynovskaya suggested that the “black list” includes people who expressed dissatisfaction with the recent elections.

The director of “Belarus-3” stated that Belarusian journalists who went on strike or quit to express their opposition to Lukashenko were replaced by Russian teams.

“Two planes of employees from Russia arrived and they perform our functions for a very large amount,” Martinovskaya said.

Meanwhile, Protests calling for Belarus’ leader Alexander Lukashenko to step down took place again in the capital Minsk continued.

For the first time in a week riot police reappeared on the streets as authorities seemed to take steps to regain momentum against the protests.

It came on the same day as Lukashenko ordered police to clear the streets. There was no violence, simply police blockades.

“There should no longer be any disorder in Minsk of any kind,” Lukashenko said in a meeting with senior officials, as reported by state news agency Belta. “People are tired. People demand peace and quiet.”

Meanwhile, despite the attempts by Tikhanovskaya to gain momentum from abroad, as well as foreign players such as Poland attempting to lead the protests, the opposition appears to be struggling.

A number of workers who were striking said they thought the lack of clear leaders for the protests was stopping many from joining them.

Tikhanovskaya, who was a stay-at-home mother until a few months ago, ran against Lukashenko after her husband, a popular blogger, was jailed and prevented from being a candidate.

Although she has attracted a huge backing, many people said they see her as essentially a figurehead and she is currently not in Belarus, having left for neighboring Lithuania last week under threat from authorities.

Tikhanovskaya’s campaign has formed a “coordination council” meant to hold negotiations with Lukashenko on a handover of power. The council, which includes the Nobel Prize laureate Svetlana Alexievich, held its first session on August 19^th, and published a resolution calling for the government to cease violence, release political prisoners and hold new free and fair elections.

Lukashenko denounced the opposition as part of a foreign attempt to overthrow him and simply made a series of orders telling the security forces and the military to guard against unrest.

MORE ON THE TOPIC:

• Uncovering Faces Of Belarusian Opposition
• US-Rooted ‘Belarusian Autocephalous Orthodox Church’ Expectedly Declares Support To Pro-Western Opposition
• A Closer Look At Belarusian Opposition’s Heavily Anti-Russian National Policy Plans

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