A senior Belarussian legislator has called on members of the Russian-led defense alliance to unite against Western interference as their country’s longtime leader has angered the prospect of resigning under pressure at home and abroad.
Anatoly Isachenko, deputy chairman of the upper chamber of the Belarusian parliament, told fellow members of the six-nation Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) during the group’s 13th plenary session Facing a “difficult geopolitical situation”.
“I want to highlight the growing risks of foreign direct interference in the internal affairs of CSTO member countries,” Sachenko was quoted as saying by the official Belarusian Telegraph Agency (BELTA).
He blamed the West for the troubles affecting Belarus.
“Parliamentary diplomacy is meant to reduce tensions, but the individual parliaments of Western countries have adopted all sorts of friendly resolutions. This is happening against the backdrop of a deteriorating international security architecture,” Isachenko said.
He highlighted on Tuesday Washington’s withdrawal from the open-air treaty, which is part of an agreement between 35 nations, including Belarus and Russia, to allow mutual foreign unarmed surveillance flights over each other’s territory.
Isachenko said peace treaties have been abandoned by Western states.
International legal mechanisms for arms control are shifting, he said.
The remarks are likely to be linked to the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) treaty with Russia and the U.S. The outgoing New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New Start) refers to the failure this year to renew the new bilateral non-proliferation agreement, which represents the final. Such a nuclear weapons deal between Washington and Moscow.
He called on the CSTO states to unite to meet these challenges.
“Only through collective efforts can we stand up to such a difficult environment,” he said.
Alexei Nikolsky / Sputnik / AFP / Getty Images
Many CSTO states are beset by unrest, creating a political and security crisis in the wake of the COVID-19 epidemic this year.
In late September, the territory of Nagorno-Karabakh, between Armenia and its longtime rival Azerbaijan, was ruled by the former ethnic Armenians, but was recognized internationally as part of Azerbaijan. A series of bloody battles began, ending earlier this month with Armenian relief and the deployment of Russian peacekeepers for years to come.
Popular protests erupted in Kyrgyzstan during last month’s parliamentary elections, forcing President Soronbe Jinbekov to cancel a vote and eventually resign amid allegations of ballot rigging. Kyrgyz Prime Minister Sadir Japarov briefly took up his duties, but resigned earlier this month to run in the next presidential election in January.
In Belarus, three-decade-old President Alexander Lukashenko has resisted regular protests since the disputed presidential election on August 9. But after being quoted by Beltie on Friday, he was suddenly appearing the way of course Lata, as he said he had endorsed the creation of a new constitution, and this could mean his resignation.
“If you want it and the nation votes for it, it will happen,” Lukashenko said of the new constitution. “I am not going to shape the constitution to suit my needs. I will not be president once the new constitution is implemented.”
On the same day, however, he gave details of the alleged Western plot by neighboring US-led North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) allies, such as Poland, and Ukraine, to weaken Russia by increasing chaos in Belarus. The Belarussian leader also denounced his country’s hardline power and warned that it was within its right to wage war if the country’s sovereignty needed to be maintained.
“We all want sovereignty and freedom, but freedom is a very expensive thing,” Lukashenko said during a visit to Minsk Hospital. “If the Belarusians are ready to fight for this freedom, even if it is taken, let’s fight. Otherwise, we will be thrown back, deprived of what we have, and have to work hard for someone else.”
During his visit to Belarus on Wednesday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov also warned that Moscow would defend Minsk not only as a member of the CSTO but as two parts of the United States.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, for his part, identified an important area of inter-parliamentary cooperation during a message at the recent CSTO session, “The development of common approaches to countering threats associated with interference in the internal affairs of sovereign states.”
In a meeting Monday with the head of the Eurasian Economic Union, which includes all CSTO members except Tajikistan, Lukashenko indicated that economic war between allies and their foreign enemies had already begun, and that political and military issues were not far behind. .
“A confrontation has begun,” he said. “In fact, an open economic war is going on, and it’s already turning into a diplomatic war or a mass media war. Things are getting really tough. . “
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Latvia, Lithuania and Poland have all denied border political interference against Lukashenko in Belarus, but have actively campaigned for his resignation in support of his deportation opponent Svetlana Tikhnovskaya.
He said recently Newsweek He hoped that Biden would come with his “strong position” against Lukashenko if elected US president.
“I am confident that Biden will fulfill his promises regarding Belarus and its attitude towards this regime,” he said on Wednesday. “We know that it is for democracy and that it will support the Belarusian people and the Belarusian society.”
Last month, the former vice president vowed to strengthen international sanctions against Belarus. With Lukashenko still in power, Biden said he would join Svetlana Tikhanovskaya and the people of Belarus in calling for a peaceful transfer of power, the release of all political prisoners and free and fair elections, so that Belarusians could eventually use the exercise for democratic rights. Has given. “
Biden has questioned President Donald Trump’s resolve to crack down on Lukashenko.
As protests by opposition supporters continue and harassment by security forces in Belarus continues, the State Department said in a statement earlier this month that the U.S. “continues to detain and hold accountable those who have been killed. And with those who continue. Peacefully asserting their right to choose their leaders in free and fair elections. “
U.S. The remarks come days after Biden’s predicted victory in the presidential election, a victory Trump continues to dispute, accusing a large number of voters of fraud in legal cases that have yet to be accepted in court.
