Lilia Shevtsova: Lukashenka can never leave the Kremlin's orbit

Lukashenka acts like a charlatan, clown and sharper continuously blackmailing both the Kremlin and the West.

He is seeking a new formula for survival, however, he will never leave the Russia’s orbit, a well-known Russian political scientist and Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution (United States) Lilia Shevtsova said in an interview to charter97.org in Vilnius during the International Forum on "Challenges and responsibilities in modern journalism.

Answering a question about her opinion about the current situation in Belarus, about Aliaksandr Lukashenka's behavior and influence of the West which repeatedly proclaims the necessity of a dialogue with Belarusian authorities and at the same time the representatives of the EU and US visit Minsk, Shevtsova said:

"First, Lukashenka acts like charlatan and clown, as well as person who is blackmailing Putin, the West, and his own policy elite. He plays and for every pseudo-anti-Kremlin attack he takes respective subsidies from the Kremlin. He won't stop doing it.

"But as the sharper, he has been able to once again convince Europe that he may take the European way. Europe, obviously, will be ready again to build up contacts with him, while he is trying to pursue a policy that can be described as "the still sow sucks up all the draught". I think Lukashenka is just looking for a new formula of survival. But he will never be able to leave the Kremlin's orbit. Never", political scientist believes.

Full interview with Lilia Shevtsova is available on the website charter97.org next week.

Photo: AP