MOSCOW, 14 July (BelTA) – The sanctions the collective West has enforced against Belarus represent a powerful trigger for Belarusian-Russian integration. Vadim Gigin, Dean of the Philosophy and Social Sciences Faculty of Belarusian State University, made the statement during a Minsk-Moscow videoconference on 14 July, BelTA has learned.
Vadim Gigin said: “If we talk about sanctions and the overall influence of the political crisis in Belarus on the construction of the Union State of Belarus and Russia, the sanctions represent a very powerful trigger. It may sound paradoxical but the political crisis in Belarus and around it has shaken up the Union State construction and reinvigorated many processes. It has forced us to talk not so much about economy but about common challenges and threats, security problems, and the common ideology.”
According to Vadim Gigin, common threats within the framework of the hybrid war that has been launched against Belarus and Russia will only make relations inside the Union State of Belarus and Russia stronger. “We don't have normal international relations now. It would be a massive exaggeration to say that we are simply having some complications,” he noted. “There are no complications. The international relations are no longer normal. In this situation it truly makes ties between Russia and Belarus stronger.”
Vadim Gigin went on saying: “There is another thing that seems very important to me: we've sorted out a very important challenge because it looked like they were trying to make Russia part of a kind of the anti-Belarusian coalition. They said that different people in the Belarusian government would make no difference and Belarus would still continue developing relations with Russia. But it is July 2021 now. From my point of view it is totally obvious there would be a difference. One of the goals of the external forces, which were involved in the Belarusian crisis and which are introducing the sanctions now, was to destroy the Union State of Belarus and Russia. We have to understand that separating Russia from Belarus is one of the key goals of the external players. It was a multilayer complicated game, which did not start on 9 August [2020, the day of the last presidential election in Belarus]. To weaken Belarus-Russia ties, to discredit the Union State construction were some of the preconditions for destroying the political system that had evolved in the Republic of Belarus. I think serious experts have no doubts that if, shall we say, an alternative team rises to power in Belarus, Union State construction will be out of the question. The dismantling of the integration achievements will be in order then.”
The dean believes that the pressure of sanctions both against Russia and Belarus will grow stronger in the future. “Have you noticed that the Union State of Belarus and Russia started appearing as an entity in reports, plans, and statements of Western politicians in conditions of this crisis? They have been trying to totally ignore the existence of the Union State of Belarus and Russia up till recently,” Vadim Gigin pointed out.
