Page 64 - Lukashenko News Today

Grip on power may be weakened, he is still there. there are, according to the uns latest human rights report on belarus, roughly 1,000 political prisoners still being held, including your own husband. and your movement basically has gone completely underground. the street protests are almost wiped out. most of your key leaders are either in exile or in prison. lukashenko seems to have won. lukashenko didnt win. every day, he knows that he is not recognised by his people. hes not recognised by in...

Now on bbc news, hardtalk. welcome to hardtalk, im stephen sackur. with the world focused on russias invasion of ukraine, its easy to overlook one other key element of vladimir putins greater russia strategy — moscows ever tighter grip on ukraines northern neighbour belarus, now used as a launchpad for the ukraine assault. belaruss authoritarian president lukashenko seems to be in putins pocket, whether he likes it or not. my guest is exiled leader of the anti—lukashenko movement, svetla na ...

And we didnt want something like this to repeat in our lands. but illegitimate lukashenko has to pay for the support he got from the kremlin after the fraudulent election in 2020. and now hes paying with our sovereignty, with our lands. and, you know, i really feel maybe shame, you know? hes doing it, and we belarusians feeling this shame that we became aggressive towards our brother, ukraine. you talk about shame, but i guess in practical terms there is nothing that any belarus civilian can do ...

Anybody but clearly was a surprise to vladimir putin. >> jonathan? yes. thanks for having me. the russian troop advances that you mentioned, at least according to the pentagon, have apparently stalled over the past few days. its not just one or two. its more surprising that in the past three or four in particular and just yesterday president lukashenko of belarus stated outright that belarussian forces will not fight in ukraine. at the moment it looks like the russian strategy is to focus on ind...

To the fate of ukraine? svetla na tikhanovskaya, welcome to hardtalk. hello. its nice to have you in our studio. tell me, what are your feelings as you see your country, belarus, being used as a launchpad for vladimir putins invasion of ukraine? you know, on 2a february, we woke up in a new reality, and we understood that lukashenko gave our land as the aircraft carrier for putins troops to invade ukraine. we were shocked. nobody believed that the war could start because we remember the pain of ...

Very brutal response from the russian side. they are saying that all of the issues should be discussed on the local level of teams, and talking about belarus and the russian side repeated again the ultimatum. so this means that they are not ready to answer negotiations. they are just trying to take some time and to do another wave of attacks on ukraine. >> you probably heard from a conversation between president lukashenko and president putin yesterday, talking about the sanctions on the country...

On the border with belarus, and its pretty much exactly at the point, like, if you wanted to send a column of tanks down from the belarusian border, which is where the russians have this build—up forces, if you wanted to send a column of tanks down to to take kyiv, that would be the quickest route, youd pretty much go through chernobyl. and belarus is close to russia, with lukashenko, an ally of putin, basically on his side, almost like a puppet government, right? exactly, a puppet government....

Of that was clear, that if putin wanted to place nuclear weapons on belarusian territory, lukashenko would agree. when the protesters came out against that and against the war in ukraine, hundreds more were arrested and rounded up. it is very easy to understand, isnt it, why so many belarusians now are too frightened to make a stand in public? i think its difficult for people from democratic countries to understand the level of fear in dictatorships, because you are scared to say a word. you are...

He said that russia, quote, acquires new competencies and restored one at a new level and they could innovate their way out of this. maybe this is putting a party hat on a pile of sanctions, but i wonder, what do you make of that assessment? >> rubbish. rubbish, victor. it is clear that his economy is hemorrhaging. the exchange rate, the investors fleeing, the businesses fleeing, individual russians are paying the price. if president putin thinks that hes benefitting from this, hes in a dream wo...

Belarus becoming russia. from the very beginning. the fact that we have not done that just means that lukashenko had another level of negotiations with putin. and probably had a very good bargain right now. we anticipated the pillars will get into war probably the beginning of next week, and what does not have a large army. i am very sure that many people, many russian people, will choose to fight. we know that they will basically open the second front for us. so for the north and west, they wil...