"I don't see any snowdrops." Former Chargé d'Affaires of Poland to Belarus speaks out on negotiations with Minsk
Former Chargé d'Affaires of Poland to Belarus, Witold Jurasz, commented on the meeting of foreign ministers on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly during a broadcast on the Belsat TV channel and stated that negotiations with Minsk would only lead to the lifting of sanctions, but not to the democratization of Belarus. Although he himself previously advocated for dialogue with the Belarusian authorities.
"Now I consider any normalization with Minsk to be completely mistaken," said Witold Jurasz, a journalist for Onet.pl and Chargé d'Affaires of Poland to Belarus in 2010-2011, on Belsat.
During his work in Minsk, he, on the contrary, advocated for negotiations with the Belarusian authorities. The then diplomat considered it possible to prevent Belarus from sliding from authoritarianism into dictatorship and transforming our country from an independent state into, as he put it, "a semi-colony of Russia":
"15 years ago I said something completely different. I then said: yes, we need to talk. But the train has left, that's it."
At that time, many in Warsaw opposed dialogue. Now, however, negotiations with Minsk play into the hands of the Kremlin, Jurasz is convinced:
"If we start talking with Minsk now, there will be only one result: there will be no sanctions. And if there are no sanctions on Belarus, then there will be none on Russia, because economically it is one and the same."
The ex-diplomat believes that the Belarusian authorities cannot guarantee that there will be no attack on neighbors from our territory, because "Minsk does not decide, Moscow does," and "Lukashenka is not able to refuse Putin if Putin suddenly wants war":
"One should not be under any illusions that the current Lukashenka can, if Putin decides to attack Lithuania, excuse my expression, send him packing. 15 years ago – yes, he could say: no. But now he cannot."
Discussions around a possible warming between Minsk and Warsaw began after the meeting of the foreign ministers of Belarus and Poland, Maksim Ryzhenkov and Radosław Sikorski, on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York. Sikorski spoke very figuratively about the prospects for relations: "It's like a snowdrop that can bloom if the weather is favorable."
Witold Jurasz remarked that he "sees no snowdrops":
"I don't want to say here that Sikorski's meeting with Ryzhenkov was scandalous in any way, because at the UN – it's a tradition: countries with very difficult relations meet."
The former diplomat concluded that negotiations with Minsk could now lead to the lifting of sanctions and the release of political prisoners, but not to an end to repression in Belarus.
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