Vladimir Putin disowned questions about the Roman Protasevich case. “I don’t know him and don’t want to know. Let him do what he wants, fight the Lukashenka regime, ”the Russian leader commented on the former editor-in-chief of the Nexta Telegram channel during his speech at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum. At the same time, on the sidelines, this topic has become one of the main ones. A coincidence did not go unnoticed: the head of Uralchem, a native of Minsk, Dmitry Mazepin, unexpectedly canceled his participation in one of the sessions of the forum, where he was announced as a participant. Shortly before that, Protasevich appeared on Belarusian television, pleaded guilty and announced help from a certain Russian oligarch from the Urals. Kommersant FM observer Mikhail Gurevich saw the interest of business in the Belarusian topic as an alarming signal for the Kremlin.
The absence from the SPIEF presidential panel did not prevent Alexander Lukashenko from invisibly present on the sidelines and on the stage of Russia’s main economic conference. Throughout the past week, representatives of the state and big business have been communicating with journalists in various formats. But, despite the loud statements and announcements, the most resonant was the dialogue between the arrested Roman Protasevich and the head of the Belarusian ONT TV channel Marat Markov.
Of course, I can’t call the interview I saw or journalism in general. However, in St. Petersburg, the video was noticed immediately. Immediately after its appearance on YouTube, all activities on the forum were canceled by the head of Uralchem Dmitry Mazepin. Moreover, the name of the Russian businessman, a native of Minsk, was not even called out loud. Enough of the phrase that the Nexta Telegram channel was sponsored by a certain company of the famous Russian oligarch, which is associated with the Urals and mining. It is difficult to ignore the feeling that this passage was a kind of greetings from Lukashenka not only to Mazepin, but to the entire Russian business community. They say that times, of course, are hard, but the Minsk ruler is keenly watching the alignment of forces in the local market and will not sacrifice his interests to the Moscow Varangians.
Vladimir Putin did not forget about his recent counterpart in Sochi. It is curious that, despite the briefcase with the documents that were shown to him a week ago, the president’s answers to questions about Belarus sounded extremely neat and even detached. He knows everything that happened to Protasevich and the plane only from the stories of Lukashenka. He does not want to go into this matter. And “the truth is always, as usual, somewhere in between.” This was said not only about the incident with Ryanair, but also about the political processes in the union state in general.
It is not clear whether it is worth looking for changes in Moscow’s policy in Putin’s formulations, or whether this is just a preparation for the future, for example, for the upcoming summit in Geneva. But on the whole, such a concentration of attention to news from Minsk at the St. Petersburg forum certainly irritates many in the Kremlin.
It turns out that, despite repeated assurances, the situation in the republic is not only not taken under control, but endlessly overgrown with more and more new scandals.
Lukashenka can explain his problems as much as he wants by either creeping aggression or competition from neighbors. It is obvious that Moscow will eventually have to pay for this whole series of conspiracies and intrigues. And if so, then, probably, the endless source of budgetary expenditures should not overshadow the joy of the meeting after the pandemic break and the measured all-round discussion of the prospects of the Russian economy on the banks of the summer Neva.
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