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Last weekend, a stunning view from Minsk circled the world, with Lukashenko, armed with Kalashnikov, flying by helicopter to his residence at the Independence Palace as a crowd of hundreds of protesters dissolved.
A video posted by his own press service shows him, surrounded by his guards, in a bulletproof vest, feverishly floating in his hand while holding a machine gun.
In addition to the videos of the president himself, which soon spread to the world’s media and social networks, 15-year-old Nicholas was also seen.
“Kolia”, with whom the ruler of Minsk is no different during the riots, or the “Little Prince”, as he is sometimes called, and for whom his father had long predicted the fate of the future head of the country. Belarusians are absolutely convinced of this, although Lukashenko himself has denied these rumors in several interviews.
“Many experts believe that he will seek to keep power in the hands of his family. He would like to create a kind of presidential Lukashenko dynasty and he would like it to happen peacefully, ”said Dmitry Bolkunec, a Belarusian political scientist, quoted by Le Figaro.
PHOTO GALLERY. Mr. Lukashenko and his son
Lukashenko stood with a pistol in his hand against his own people
Now this dream is being thwarted by hundreds of thousands of protesters across the country condemning the rigged elections of August 9, demanding one who has ruled them for 26 years and is responsible for the ongoing crackdown on the citizens of their country.
Kolia is a regular companion of Lukashenko’s trips abroad, he also participated in the commemoration of the 75th Great Patriotic War on June 24 this year in Moscow’s Red Square. The blonde has grown into an attractive and well-composed teenager who receives a lot of attention from girls on social media and comparisons to Prince William in her country.
But this time things were different. Father and son, armed together, at a time when the country is on the verge of an explosion, this is Lukashenko’s message, which can only be understood in one way: I will not retreat or run like the Ukrainian Viktor Yanukovych in the summer 2014, and if necessary I will shoot the protesters.
While Belarus is not yet ready to turn around, Lukashenko is showing his stubbornness by upholding the image of an uncompromising president who has dramatically separated himself from his people. The political scientist Valerijus Karbalevičius describes this man and his regime in the biography of Belarus, which is banned in Belarus itself, as “cruelty, cynicism, obsession with greatness, crookedness, disregard for the law, vulgarity, populism.”
Mr. Lukashenko has not lived with his wife, Galina, for many decades, but the spouses have not been divorced. The name Nicholas, born in 2004, is not officially mentioned anywhere, but it is a public secret.
“She works as a doctor,” Lukashenko evaded answers when pressured by journalists. Nikolai’s mother, in fact, is Irina Abelskaya, a former personal physician of A. Lukashenko.
His eldest sons, Viktor and Dmitry, also followed in their father’s footsteps, at least in part: the College of International Relations, a service in the border units, a “secret unit against smuggling and illegal migration,” official reports said. .
In 2005, when Dmitry became president of the sports club and a member of the Belarusian National Olympic Committee, Victor became his father’s national security adviser and held the position for 15 years. However, Lukashenko eventually chose young Nikolai as his favorite.
He destroyed the opposition, but it will be difficult to hand over power to the son
In various ways, from total repression and the “disappearance” of key political opponents to corruption and security specifications. infiltration of agents, the Belarusian opposition was initially divided and then effectively removed from the political space, says Andrei Porotnikov, a political scientist at the French Institute of International Relations in his August 2020 report.
Several opposition figures, including officials who at that time held high positions in the state, were abducted by unidentified people, killed or disappeared without a trace. For example, in 1999 the former Interior Minister Yuriy Zakharchenko, who had joined the opposition a year earlier, has disappeared. That year the head of the Central Election Commission, Viktor Gonchar, also disappeared, who allegedly may have had evidence of Lukashenko’s attempts to falsify the election results.
“The elections in Belarus then became nothing more than a decorative element, and the only institution that represented society, including parliament, became the legitimation of the Lukashenko government,” Porotnikov said.
The electoral challenge thrown at him by Svetlana Cichanouskaya, who became a candidate only after her husband was imprisoned, as well as the candidate who was considered President Lukashenko for the sixth time, he accepted as an insult.
“An unfortunate girl,” joked the presidential candidate machinist, who a few months earlier recommended treating Covid-19 by “folding the glass” or “working on the tractor in the field.”
Mr. Lukashenko sees Belarus in his worldview as personal property and is confident that he has a moral obligation to pass it on to his son, Kolya, recently Vladimir Pastuchov, a political scientist at University College London. The photographs of the beloved son Nicolás are from all official meetings. Of course, with Putin, but before and with Hugo Chávez, Barack Obama, Pope Benedict XVI.
“It just came to our attention then. He is a special child. But he will never be president. He will probably never become president. My son traveled a lot with me. He saw all that political dirt. And he does not want politics in any way,” Lukashenko said in a recent interview. But he also said back in 2008: “I already said that the young man will be president.”
But now that thousands of dissatisfied tyrants take to the streets of many Belarusian cities with posters bearing their “cockroach” nickname, the chances of their son becoming president in the near or distant future seem highly doubtful. The name of A. Lukashenko, who is holding a machine gun in his hands, is now used by people only to intimidate.
“The day Lukashenko dies will be a national holiday,” said Tom, who was born and raised in Belarus and now lives in Vilnius. According to the guy, Lukashenko’s regime counts the last minutes, and the dictator who has ruled the country for 26 years will be sentenced to the most cruel punishment.
See more in the TV3 news report:
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