|
Archived Articles
Simeon Mitropolitski is a Canadian analyst, of Bulgarian origin, and a former syndicated columnist with the Bulgarian News Agency (BTA). He is the author of several hundred articles dealing with hot political and economic topics, both national and international.
He was part of the first group of Bulgarian intellectuals and students that began the opposition movement that finally put an end to the communist regime in this country in 1989, and in 1996-1997 participated in international observation teams during the elections in several Balkan countries - Romania, Albania and Bulgaria.
In 2002 Simeon and his family moved from Bulgaria to Canada where they live now in Montreal, province of Quebec. Simeon is a Master of Political Science from McGill University and a B.A. of Political Science and History.
Global Real Estate Project
|
 |
Belarus: Lukashenko's Gray RevolutionWhat color of the rainbow will the revolution in Belarus be called one day when its current dictator is no more around to make many of us laughing? What type of flower or kind of fruit from the grocery store will symbolize the new political era? In fact it may not be a 'color' revolution at all because there won't be a peaceful political transition. Some bloody dictators don't give up the power because there is no tomorrow for them. They are either killed like animals or die in paranoia of been murdered from their closest allies. The 'last dictator' in Europe, Lukashenko, a title that doesn't look fair given other candidates for this position, won't give his absolute power. It seems less likely that Russia has interest of removing him from office either. With these options out, what remains is a coup or a bloody riot, or a combination of both. Lukashenko himself is a revolutionary. At the time when everyone was lamenting the end of the communism, around the mid 1990s to be more precise, he did reverse the history clock and did the impossible, restored partly the system, eliminated the opposition, put the economy again under strict control, restricted the ideological dissidence and glorified the political police under its true and horrifying name KGB. He did this using truly revolutionary means; he didn't stop when the law told him to stop. Many from within and from outside helped him, but the great part of the job he did himself. When he praised Hitler he did it directly without diplomatic euphemisms. He's revolutionary even if he sees himself more like a state-builder. If we have to call his deeds by their true name, we may call them the "Gray Revolution", the revolution done by a gray personality, aided by gray civil servants, supported by the silent majority of gray subjects. A gray state for gray people. The gray states don't produce 'color' social movements and even less 'color' revolutions. The first condition for any nation to be ready to fight and die for its freedom is to have high esteem for the freedom itself. Many nations live in freedom even without such strong feelings because it's already deeply entrenched in their way of life. But is this true for societies that until recently were still communist? Lukashenko showed that the communism went down in large part not because its opponents were strong but because its political supporters were demoralized and weak. It's clear why it's so easy now for him to keep the power. It isn't surprising why the 'color revolution' doesn't work in a country without people ready to fight for freedom; it will be surprising if it does work. Elections in Belarus exist because Lukashenko wants them to exist, so it isn't surprising that he's the winner. Some years ago we predicted that Russia remained the only factor that could bring down Lukashenko (**). With the time passing the power of Moscow over Belarus has increased, but its political interference has declined. Especially now when NATO is knocking on the doors of Russia, Belarus becomes strategically important. Lukashenko has no other international options than to look to Moscow for general line of behavior and to follow it without discussion. In exchange to this he gets some cheap oil and natural gas and some market options to export weaponry. After losing Ukraine, temporarily as it hopes, Kremlin cannot allow the West to score another point in what it sees as a zero-sum-game of influence. Therefore for now Lukashenko can have a good sleep on all fronts.
Belarus country profile: --------------------
See also the directory of companies providing real estate services in, and general real estate information of Belarus.
|
See also:
