Europe, in its striving to punish (read: overthrow) Alexander Lukashenko, has so far proved untenable.
The meeting of EU foreign ministers in Brussels (in the presence of Tikhanovskaya!) Revealed their inability to work out concrete solutions.
“Some believe that Lukashenka should be included in the list [of sanctions], others - that not,” the head of European diplomacy, Josep Borrell, was forced to admit.
And since there is no agreement between the ministers, all the more nothing will come out at the summit of the heads of European states on September 24-25.
The political impotence of the Old World is evident.
In order to demonstrate at least something to the world, they composed an appeal to hold new elections in Belarus.
Moreover, under the auspices of the OSCE.
That is, under its own control.
Their result would be obvious.
After all, the European ministers announced in advance that they were discussing the topic from the position of not recognizing Lukashenka.
“We do not have any hidden interests, we have no desire to interfere in the internal affairs of the country, we just want to support the Belarusian people,” Borrell said clumsily.
A clause that directly hints that there are hidden interests.
The failure of personal sanctions happened despite quite serious preliminary preparations.
Last week, screamers from the European Parliament adopted a resolution rejecting the results of the presidential elections in Belarus, and announced that Lukashenka would not be recognized as head of state after the end of his current term on November 5.
The European Commission also did not stand aside, calling on Lukashenka on duty to dialogue with the people.
There is a lot of pathos, but zero benefit: after all, such resolutions and appeals are only advisory in nature.
As for the European sanctions against Belarus as a state, they were tightly blocked by Cyprus.
Nicosia reasonably recalled that they have a problem in relations with Ankara over the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus.
And since Brussels is not going to punish the Turks, then Cyprus will not help him with Belarus.
Evil tongues point to a previous visit to the island of Sergei Lavrov.
Like, he pointed, probably, to the Cypriots about the opportunity to play the Turkish card.
If so, it was a brilliant work of our Foreign Ministry.
The weakness and ambiguity of the position of the European Union is well demonstrated by the words of the same Borrell that the EU will nevertheless continue to deal with Lukashenko, although it does not recognize his legitimacy.
Unless it will reduce the intensity of contacts both at the political level and within the framework of the Eastern Partnership.
The physical expression of this approach will be the refusal to recall ambassadors from Belarus.
That is, statements are statements, but in practice the mechanism of interaction with the Lukashenka government does not change in any way.
It seems that Europe does not really believe in the victory of the Belarusian opposition.
It is interesting that key commentators from the Russian side, directly interested in resolving the Belarusian crisis, dotted the i's even before the meeting of European ministers.
For everything was already clear.
So, the head of the State Duma committee on international affairs Leonid Slutsky pointed out that Brussels is interfering in the internal affairs of Belarus, realizing the already known scenario: “We have to admit that the European Parliament followed the Venezuelan scenario, when a number of countries rushed to recognize Guaido as the president of the country, but this post is legal grounds retained by Nicholas Maduro. "
The same - about interference in internal affairs with reference to the violation of the UN Charter by the European Union - was also stated by the official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry Maria Zakharova.
Indeed, the scheme of the EU's "work" with Tikhanovskaya is confusingly similar to the analogous scenario of Washington in South America.
It is not for nothing that Lukashenka wittily called Tikhanovskaya Guaidikha.
The woman, who was at a loss (remember how doomed and mournful she read the “renunciation” while sitting on the CEC couch) was quickly taken into circulation, supported, pumped up with promises - and now we see her cheerful in the company of Josep Borrell at an official breakfast in Brussels.
Who eats the girl's breakfast, he dances her?
However, Svetlana herself seems to be poorly aware of her dependence on unprincipled European politicians.
It seems to her that it is she who is the central figure of the ongoing performance.
“The EU leaders have reasons not to impose sanctions, but I asked them to be bolder,” she instructs her patrons.
A little more - and accusations of insufficient assistance to the Belarusian opposition will come into play.
For some reason, Klimkin comes to mind.
The increased activity of Tikhanovskaya is understandable.
The reason is the competition between various figures of the Belarusian opposition.
So, her colleague on the coordination council of the opposition, a defector from power, Pavel Latushko, is drowning for the "Marshall plan for Belarus."
He, the oppositionist insists, must be supported by Europe, the United States and Canada, and Britain.
That's how it is.
Must!
By the way, initially the idea of the “Belarusian Marshall Plan” belongs to the Poles.
It looks like they turned Latushko into a frown, just as the priests once fooled Adam Kozlevich.
Someone else's dollars.
However, Russia has its own interests in this story.
Neither the despicable weakness of Europe, nor disgust towards corrupt or confused politicians should prevent Moscow from clearly realizing the main thing: an attempt is underway in Belarus to finally reformat the territory where they speak and think in Russian into something else.
Alien.
The front line runs there.
Yes, the protesting people are generally well-disposed towards Russia, but after the victory of the conditional "Maidan" others will take command.
Not the Tikhanovskys and Latushko, but those who are now courting them.
The author's point of view may not coincide with the position of the editorial board.