Lukashenka ‘Shoots Himself in the Foot’ by Denying Catholic Leader’s Reentry into Belarus, Rudkovsky Says

Paul Goble

            Staunton, August 31 – Alyaksandr Lukashenka has “shot himself in the foot” by blocking the re-entry into Belarus of Archbishop Tadeusz Kondrasevic, the head of the one million Roman Catholics in that country not only radicalizing Catholic opinion but isolating official Minsk internationally still further, Petr Rudovsky says.

            Indeed, if one is given to conspiracy thinking, the former Catholic priest who now heads the Belarus Institute for Strategic Research adds, this action which Lukashenka must have approved personally will have the effect of broadening the protests against him (thinktanks.by/publication/2020/09/01/petr-rudkovskiy-v-belarusi-ochen-yavnym-sposobom-podtolknuli-i-katolicheskoe-soobschestvo-k-protestam.html).

            It will also offend the Vatican and Roman Catholics in other countries, although it may please many in Russia who, since the times of Alexander Nevsky, have viewed Roman Catholicism as a threat not only to the Orthodox Church but to Russia’s unique civilization.

            This action is completely illegal – there is no basis in Belarusian law to prevent a Belarusian citizen from entering the country. The archbishop has Belarusian citizenship, although some in Minsk are pointing out that he has citizenship in other countries and thus could in principle be blocked.

            According to Rudovsky, the Orthodox Church in Belarus will not come openly to Kondrasuvic’s defense, “but on an unofficial level, in an informal or semi-formal formal, [this action against the head of the Catholic Church in Belarus “will also generate a negative reaction in certain Orthodox circles.”

            This move against Kondrusevic may also complicate efforts to start talks between the Lukashenka regime and the Belarusians in the streets. The prelate has frequently been mentioned as a possible mediator who along with the head of the Orthodox Church in Belarus could play such a role. Of course, that may be one reason why his return to Minsk was blocked.

            The Belarusian protest began first among nationalist groups, then it spread to economic ones and intellectual groups, and now Minsk is pushing Catholicism to add its voice as a collective, Rudovsky says.  And Lukashenka is going to find it anything but easy to put that genie back into the bottle.