Paul Goble
Staunton, July 22 – Andrzej Poczobut, a Belarusian journalist and activist for the Polish minority in that country who has received a Sakharov Prize in 2025 for his steadfast commitment to freedom despite repeated jailings by the Lukashenka regime, says that “Belarus isn’t Russia” but rather a country “five minutes away from totalitarianism.”
The activist offered those observations at a meeting in Vilnius this week, his first visit there since his release from a Belarusian prison in April and a session during which he said he is working on a new book about his captivity and his plans to continue to fight for freedom in Belarus (gazetaby.com/post/andzhej-pachobut-belarus-ne-rasiya/215392/).
Poczubut said that he will return to Belarus because it is belief that while that country today is “five minutes away from totalitarianism,” the actions of Belarusians against the dictatorship have the chance to push that back to ten or even 15 minutes and must view any progress in that direction as a victory.
Obviously, he continued, what happens in Belarus will depend not only on the Belarusians but on “how the war in Ukraine will develop, how it will end, and what the balance of power in our region will be.” Given Lukashenka’s recognition that he might lose if he took part in the war, at least the opening of a second front against Ukraine is less likely.
Lukashenka’s regime consists “mostly” of pro-Russian officials who are prepared to follow Moscow’s line, Poczubut says; but he adds that it is his impression that “Belarus is geographically located in Europe and Politically in Asia, closer to countries like Turkmenistan which has a 100 percent dictatorship.”
The West needs to recognize that and not to be taken in by Lukashenka’s occasional faints in its direction and must never forget that “Belarus is not Russia and not part of Russia” but a country with its own traditions, interests and needs and will be far better off after Lukashenka passes from the scene.
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