MOSCOW, 24 August (BelTA) - Mikhail Delyagin, a well-known Russian economist, politician and publicist, scientific director of the Institute of Globalization Problems, shared his opinion on who is behind the protests in Belarus, the place and role of the opposition's coordination council and calls for strikes.
Mikhail Delyagin believes that the situation in Belarus is influenced by many interested stakeholders from outside. “If the protest leader flees to a neighboring country and mounts a propaganda campaign from there, if representatives of another neighboring state say they have designs on Grodno Oblast, if the third neighboring country issues recommendations to give up power and follow the path of the countries that have become victims of color revolutions, if European countries refuse to recognize the results of a legitimate election, then, probably, we can say that there is an external interference,” he said.
There is no unanimous opinion on Belarus among European countries, Mikhail Delyagin said. “Germany does not need an iron curtain between Russia and Europe because then it will lose access to cheap oil and gas. Therefore it does not need a coup d'etat in Belarus,” he believes. Mikhail Delyagin believes that if the Belarusian authorities stop the opposition from receiving financial and organizational assistance from the West, will neutralize all provocateurs and saboteurs, protests, which are already losing momentum, will quickly fade away.
“This year's Darwin Award definitely goes to strike committees of state-owned enterprises. There is overproduction, even of potash fertilizers, in the world today. Belaruskali's decision to go on strike plays into the hands of its competitors,” Mikhail Delyagin concluded.