MOSCOW, 25 August (BelTA) - The events in Belarus are an attempt to implement a color revolution, the ultimate goal of which is to dismantle the welfare state in the country, Ukrainian public and political figure Spiridon Kilinkarov said in an interview with BelTA. Spiridon Kilinkarov was a member of the Ukrainian Parliament of the fifth to the seventh convocations.
“Belarus is facing attempts to dismantle the Soviet legacy, including in the social policy,” said Spiridon Kilinkarov. “If you look at the post-Soviet space, Belarus is probably the only country that can be called a welfare state, where people have an 8-hour working day, where their labor rights are respected, where people work at factories, are paid wages and have many more things that are long gone in other countries,” he said.
The politician noted that even those foreign politicians who actively speak out against Aleksandr Lukashenko do not recognize the victory of the opponents of the incumbent Belarusian president in the last election, which the opposition claims they have won. “This is an attempt at a color revolution in order to fulfill the ultimate goal - to overthrow government- and the collateral goal - to weaken Belarus (it is still a serious economic player in Europe today) and thus get preferences. Some think that this is all about democracy, freedom and the rights of those people who are protesting today. This is not so. It is all about economy and money. In general, whatever is happening is always about money. You just need to know that European politicians and those puppeteers who are financing all these events in Belarus, are doing this for a reason. They want their gains from it. There is no need to be complacent today: everything may go quiet, but after a while they will try again and again to achieve the goals they have set for themselves,” the expert said.
“I want to talk about the winners and losers," Spiridon Kilinkarov continued. “If some of protesters think that they lost to Aleksandr Lukashenko or his supporters, I want to ask them to wait a bit. If Belarus continues the policy of development, which it has pursued for the last more than two decades, you will understand that there are no losers. There will be only winners. If Belarus decides in favor of the policy implemented in Ukraine, from which European politicians disassociate themselves today, you will understand that, having won now, you will lose later. Therefore, if Belarus holds out today and continues developing, then there will be no losers in Belarus, even among those who participated in the protests. Everyone will win. If everything goes according to a destructive scenario, everyone will lose: those who are protesting against Aleksandr Lukashenko, and those who support him. The country will lose as a whole. I am not going to campaign for Aleksandr Lukashenko. He is a self-sufficient politician. This story is not about him. This story is about the country, its sovereignty, model of economic development, respect for social rights and freedoms of people,” the Ukrainian expert noted.
Spiridon Kilinkarov also recalled the catastrophic mistakes that European politicians had made in relation to other countries. “European politicians know exactly what they are doing today. But they do not know how it is going to end,” he said. “I can cite the examples of Syria, Libya, and Iraq where they were sure they were doing the right thing. How did it end? It ended with migrants, problems within Europe. I do not remember any European politician, except for Tony Blair, who at least admitted the mistakes that Europe made in relation to these countries, thus having provoked a crisis within itself. They are not ready to admit their mistakes, and I think it is an absolutely irresponsible policy.
They are trying to implement the same scenario in Belarus. Many people have the illusion that their success will come easy, that there is no need to do anything for it. It is enough to protest against Aleksandr Lukashenko, and tomorrow Angela Merkel will come and give everyone a Mercedes, salaries as high as in the EU, and so on. Money does not come from thin air. If the Ukrainian scenario is implemented, money from factory workers will flow over to those who privatize these factories,” Spiridon Kilinkarov said.