The cost of an assassination attempt on the state

Belarusian opposition leader Sergei Tikhanovsky was sentenced to 18 years in prison.

Employees of his campaign headquarters were sentenced to terms ranging from 14 to 16 years.

The timing is very serious, and, of course, we already see and hear a single groan of domestic and foreign supporters of an immediate change of power in Belarus.

Belarus is an independent state, therefore, of course, everyone can express their opinion, but interference in the internal affairs of other countries is unacceptable. This is the fundamental principle of international politics that Russia adheres to. Because from intervention through sanctions to armed intervention is one step, which we have repeatedly seen performed by the United States and its NATO allies.

Did NATO members manage to make people's lives better at least somewhere through their intervention?

Definitely not.

A criminal pseudo-state has been created in Kosovo, from which people continue to leave en masse, and the confrontation between Serbs and Albanians can break out at any moment.

Iraq - poverty and terrorist attacks.

Libya - the state is divided.

Syria - only with Russian help was it possible to save the state, but the former prosperity is still very far away.

Well, and Afghanistan - 20 years of wasted time and thousands of senseless victims, the Taliban * waited and returned.

Therefore, Russia can help if she is called.

But intervention is not our method.

Lukashenko hypothetically could, like Yanukovych, let the situation take its course and flee the country - he would have found a home in Rostov.

But he chose a different path - to stand to the last.

And he won.

How much did Yanukovych's weakness cost Ukraine?

Thousands of lives lost in Donbass.

In millions of distorted destinies.

To the forever lost Crimea.

In the transformation of the former granary of Russia and the USSR into the poorest state in Europe.

Almost eight years have passed, but it is not getting any better in Ukraine, and God knows what the victory of the "Euromaidan" may end up in.

The example of Ukraine was in front of Lukashenka's eyes, so he perfectly understood what could happen if he gave power to the representatives of the Minsk “Euromaidan”.

The collapse of the country, poverty, the transformation of Belarus into an American puppet and, as a result, active attempts by the new master to set the Belarusians against the Russians - in fact, what we now see to the south.

From a purely human point of view, one can feel sorry for those who have now received long sentences in Belarus. But these are the harsh laws of the state's self-defense. Unfortunately, the choice is very simple: either stiffness or camber. The third way has not yet been invented in any country in the world. In the United States, the participants in the seizure of the congress are also not fed with gingerbread, and the police opened fire without hesitation.

Although both in the United States and in Russia, participants in anti-government protests receive, of course, much shorter terms than in Belarus, but here, apparently, the point is in the level and degree of threat.

Russian Bolotnaya and even the seizure of the Congress in Washington were dangerous only for the direct participants in the riots and for the forces of law and order.

To believe that this could shake the foundations of the state system or change power could only be dreamers completely cut off from life.

This explains the relatively short time frame.

In the case of Belarus, it was about the existence of the state as such and about the possible victims of many thousands.

Therefore, the reaction is much more serious.

I would like to note that if the Russian-Belarusian integration were deeper, then the risks would be much less, but I remind you once again that Belarus is an independent state, so it's up to them to decide.

And I am sure that the further, the more Ukrainians will think that it would be better for the leaders of the Euromaidan in 2014 to be sentenced to 18 years in prison and the country would continue its harmonious development as a bridge between Russia and Europe, and not as an anti-Russian bogey what we see at the moment.

Ukraine missed its chance for successful development, while Belarus still has all the opportunities.

* "Taliban" - the organization is under UN sanctions for terrorist activities.

The point of view of the author may not coincide with the position of the editorial board.