‘The West Must Prepare For Changes In Belarus’

• 22.10.2024, 12:04

Europe will not be complete without our country.

Jakob Wöllenstein, Director of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation's Belarus Office, told Deutsche Welle why Europe needs Belarus.

“We understand that Europe will not be complete without Belarus,” Wöllenstein said. “Firstly, Belarus is geographically located in the center of Europe.

Secondly, history and culture. Belarus was part of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, where the Statutes were the basis of law. This is European law. That is, the historical and cultural roots of Belarusians are quite European.

If we talk about the future, we saw that Russia invaded Ukraine through Belarus. This means that the security of the entire region depends on it.

And as long as Belarus is in league with Russia, the freedom of the countries in this region will be under threat from Russian aggression.

Of course, the Belarusians themselves share our European values. In 2020, they took to the streets to defend democracy, which is the foundation of the European political system.

All of these factors make Belarusians a completely European nation.”

The German public figure does not consider the Lukashenka and Putin regimes to be indestructible and is confident that European countries should continue to support Belarusian civil society.

“In my opinion, the Lukashenka system and the Putin system are not as stable as they seem. Look, huge Russia, in order to cope with the much smaller Ukraine, is forced to ask North Korea for help. It cannot protect its borders in the Kursk region.

All of this speaks to the instability of Putin's Russia. At the same time, the Lukashenka regime is now very strongly integrating into this system, finding itself in serious economic dependence.

Therefore, I think that if a crisis begins in Russia, Belarus will have no other choice but to turn to the European Union.

The main question is how long to wait for this moment. But I myself was born 30 kilometers from the border with the GDR in the late 80s. Then the newspapers wrote that the idea of reuniting Germany was self-deception.

But everyone knows what happened next. I was only 2 years old, and the Berlin Wall was gone.

So changes will definitely come. And we must be prepared for them, so as not to miss the window of opportunity again.”