Bakiyev is mirror for Lukashenka
- Iryna Khalip, "Ezhednevnyj zhurnal"
- 29.04.2010, 10:01
For a week Alyaksandr Lukashenka has been playung with a new toy, Kurmanbek Bakiyev, who had been snatched from the hands of insurgents.
I won't tot up how much this new undertaking costs to Belarusian tax payers, it is clear that the cost is more than three roubles from each pensioner. The games in Belarus are played un a bug way and seriously. First: "do not say yes or not, do not wear black or white". When the Kazakh trail of the former president went cold, and everybody was scratching head over whether he had gone to Minsk nor not, Belarusian officials of all hues stated that there was no Bakiyev in Belarus, and he won't be there. Chief officers of civilian aviation thoughtfully thumbed through lists of passengers and said that there was no such person there, and a plane with this passenger hadn't arrived ot the country. Belarusian Ambassdor to Kyrgyzstan went out to the protesters near the Embassy and said that there was no citizen K. Bakiyev hiding in Minsk.
And then Alyaksandr Lukashenka started a fray game. Doughty officers of Belarusian secret services set off to take Bakiyev, to repel an attack if needed; together with brave polits who didn't fear volcanic ash and closed airports. After that there was a child game called "hospital": the former president for some reason was delivered into the hands of a special medical commission created by the order of Lukashenka. "His family is in a knocked-down condition," shared impressions mister Lukashenka. He was seriously absorbed by the game: as usual, Lukashenka himslef started to believe the creation of his imagination, a scary battle scene of manhunt after the sick and helpless by special forces from all countries of the world. He painted himself on this picture as a Red Army soclier, a rescuer with a gun and a drum.
Then Lukashenka played spies a little: Bakiyev's press-conference announced on the day before changed the address and the format in the ultimate minute. A half an hour before its beginning it was announced that the press-conference was to take place not in the National press-centre, but in the Executive committee of the CIS, which is a secure facility for which a safeconduct is needed. And moreover, it was not a press-conference, but reading of a statement for the press, and only teh most reliable journalists from a special list would be admitted there. Naturally, it was done for the reasons of the dear guest's safety. It was quite possible that Kyrgyz special services could have secretly found their way to the place where Bakiyev was. And only two days after a real press-conference followed. It was demonstrated at all TV channels of Belarus and was called "The press-conference of Kyrgyzstan president Kurmanbek Bakiyev", without a word about his dismissal. It was the game "don't ask, don't tell".
For a week Lukashenka kept repeating in all sharps and flats that his guest was a legitimate and all-people's president, a hero of the age, who had not been afraid to open fire at protesters; and how swinishly Russia acted when refused an asylum to him, and how powerless and useless the structure called the CSTO is. The CSTP failed to send its troops to squash the rebellion in Kyrgyzstan. Meanwhile Lukashenka failed to notice that involuntarily he had helped the Kyrgyz interim government to get their hands on the former Internal Affairs Minister Moldomus Kogantiyev who had fled to Russia. He could have been hidden their probably if it were not for Lukashenka. But after such demonstrations Russia probably decided that to ask like Lukashenka is too much, so they detained the escaped minister quickly.
But Bakiyev is more than a new amusement for Lukashenka. Not so many games are left -- maybe a shop ("Kurmanbek, they say you have carried out 200 millions, haven't you? Don't you want to buy a Belarussian passport?") and certainly hide-and-seek, which is inevitable for the both. And what's next? Lukashenka does not want to think about what would be next, it is to frightful. By hiding Bakiyev he is fighting with his own future. They have never been friends, and Balerus and Kyrgyzsnat have never been important economic partners. Lukashenka looked at Bakiyev with great suspicion, as he had come into power thanks to barricades hated and feared by Lukashenka. But now, when from a arevolutionary Bakiyev turned into a dictator, and even started fire against his own people, he has become a brother for Lukashenka, a blood relation, and moreover, an amulet. His mission as a guest of Belarus to avert the same future from Lukashenka. It seems to Lukashenka that by keeping Bakiyev safe and sound, with his presidential regalia, the future won't ever come. As if by not cleaining a mirror, but allowing dust to gather, this mirror won't show your old age, and dust would conceal wrinkles and tiredness.
That is why Lukashenka was ready for an overt conflict with anyone who recognised the interim government, and is shouting about Bakiyev's legitimacy, making his own menials call the fugitive Kyrgyz president only, without ane "ex". Lukashenka hopes that the riots that sparkle there from time to time would finally plunge the country into such a bottomless gloom that the government would beg Bakiyev to return and establish order in the country, even if it would be a dictatorial order. Or probably supporters of the ousted dictator would be able to strike back and imprison the interim government, and the disposed presidebnt would return to Bishkek triumphantly, on a horse with an ostrich-plume. Just to be on the safe side, he demonstrates by Bakiyev's example to those scarce friends and allies (Akhmadinejad? Chavez?.. there is no one more left) how they should treat Lukashenka himself in case he would be forced to flee: to announce loundly he is a legitimate president, and send him for a medical examination.
A person who had been threwn a remark by a fortuneteller "you will die is three days", tries to outwit the fate on this day. He won't drive the car, won't go out at all, for a brick not to fall on his head suddenly, and blocks gas to escape a leak, switches off electricity and lies on a sofa, planning to spend this critical day passively, avoiding to tempt Providence.He tries to stay calm, but looks at the ceiling with caution: what if it collapses? Hearing the sound of a plane he looks in the window -- isn't the plane falling? And he dies of a heart attack on his sofa. And the only thing he should have done was to give some money to the fortune-teller or resign, not waiting for damnations.