Russian Democrats Must Oppose Any Anschluss of Belarus, Ikhlov and His Readers Say

Paul Goble

            Staunton, January 5 – Because rumors are swirling that Vladimir Putin is about to conduct another Anschluss, this time of Belarus, Moscow commentator Yevgeny Ikhlov asked his readers how they to react by offering them a choice of declarations in opposition to such a step (kasparov.ru/material.php?id=5C30D09E87DCB).

            He and they understood that any such Kremlin action would represent a crossing of a Rubicon not only for Russia’s neighbors but for Russia itself and that there are thus compelling moral, political, economic, and other reasons for opposing such a move even if there are some in Belarus who would support or at least not oppose that move.

            Ikhlov’s text as overwhelmingly backed by his readers deserves attention:

“How should Russian democrats react to a hypothetical agreement of the president and Supreme Soviet of the Republic of Belarus to its inclusion in the Russian Federal state even if there is a complete lack of significant mass protests in Belarus itself:

“Such integration is an Anschluss. It is impermissible and it is a matter of honor for each Russian democrat to speak out against it just as much in a principled fashion as they spoke out against ‘Crimeanism’ and against the Chechen wars.

“It is not even about the intensification of imperial tendencies in Russia itself, the dispatch of  new billions of dollars and euros into a bottomless financial pit or the continuation of Putin talk about ‘to the Greek calends’ – an equivalent of ‘until Buddhist Easter’ – but about the deprivation of a nation of its self-standing status is a historical crime.

“Even if this nation itself temporarily comes to terms with this or in its majority greets it, because it does not understand the consequences.

“Decades will pass, but the Russian intelligentsia will always be able to say to the people of the newly independent Belarus, we defended you as we could.

“THEREFORE, IT IS THE HOLY DUTY OF THE RUSSIAN DEMOCRAT TO BEGIN A CAMPAIGN OF PROTEST AGAINST ANY SWALLOWING UP OF A NEIGHBORING COUNTRY.

“And to do so regardless of propagandistic attacks by the powers that be and the left-totalitarian opposition.”