On February 26, a “pop” was heard at the Machulishchi airfield – a Russian A-50U aircraft was blown up. The Russian public initially denied this fact, and then began to threaten that Alexander Lukashenko would be held accountable for this incident. However, there is no reaction from the Belarusian dictator yet.
Andrei Piontkovsky, a Russian publicist and opposition politician from the United States, believes that this “clap” will not lead to strategic changes in Belarus. He told Channel 24 about this. According to him, Lukashenka will continue to maneuver and officially Belarus will not enter the war with Ukraine.
Lukashenka needs guarantees from China
The opposition politician recalled that Lukashenka is going to visit China, where he will presumably negotiate with Xi Jinping on certain guarantees of the integrity of Belarus.
He noted that at one time the head of the PRC spoke about Kazakhstan, that China fully supports the territorial integrity of the country. And then all the talk about the Russians in Northern Kazakhstan immediately stopped.
“Lukashenko wants to get the same guarantees for Belarus, because Putins come and go, but Russian imperialism remains,” Piontkovsky said.
Was ready to sell Belarus
He recalled that Lukashenka began to maneuver back in the days of Putin's predecessor, Boris Yeltsin.
In 1990, Yeltsin's rating was so low that the idea arose to invite Lukashenko to “reign” in Russia. And then Lukashenka was ready to immediately sell Belarusian sovereignty and identity for the “crown” of Russia. He even went to the cities of Russia with an election campaign,” the publicist said.
Piontkovsky stressed that the emergence of Chekist Putin as Yeltsin's successor was a reaction to the possibility that the “collective farmer” Lukashenko would become president of Russia. Then the Russian elites staked on Putin.
What will be Lukashenko's reaction to the “cotton” in Machulishchi: watch the video
Putin can finally kill Lukashenka
In his opinion, when this war breaks out, a few days before his absolute surrender, perhaps arrest or flight to China, Putin will kill Lukashenka.
The interlocutor noted that there is no doubt about the victory of Ukrainian weapons and that this will happen in 2023, but in conclusion, Putin can do this.
“Lukashenko drank so much blood from Putin over the past 20 years that he got rid of him,” Andrei Piontkovsky suggested.
“Cotton” at the Machulishchi airfield: expert opinions
- Political analyst Valentin Gladkikh believes that the absence of official statements from the Belarusian and Russian sides about the explosions in Machulishchi indicates that this is a very painful moment for Minsk and Moscow. In his opinion, this is a slap in the face of Belarus and Russia.
- Andrey Kovalenko, a political strategist and aerial reconnaissance officer of the volunteer formation of the terrorist group, suggested that it is likely to launch FPV copters for the explosion near the plane in Machulishchi. According to him, this indicates the backwardness of the Russians in providing defense for their equipment.
- Military expert Oleg Zhdanov said that the Machulishchi airfield, located 12 kilometers from Minsk, is now completely surrounded. He added that it is not known what kind of explosions they were, what their nature was and who provoked them.
- Colonel of the reserve of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Roman Svitan explained that at such airfields near the Ukrainian border, there are definitely very powerful air defense systems. This indicates that neither the UAV nor the Tu-141 “Strizh” helicopter will pass. He suggested that, most likely, this was the work of either Belarusian partisans, or Ukrainian DRGs, or someone else – not the fact that Ukrainian ones.
