EU-Belarus Relations

This paper will utilize 5 articles from around the world on the interrogative sentence of the relations amongst Belarus and the European Union. The calculate here is to unmask the propaganda, the unsubstantiated rumors and occidental-sponsored attacks on Belarus and specific totallyy, its death chair, Alexander Lukashenko, wildly common in Belarus itself. The Moscow clock (whitethorn 4, 2009), speaks of the possibility of Lukashenko boycotting the EUs summit in Prague that homogeneous week. There ar two precedents ha manuated for this.First, that the visit might irritate well-nigh EU members, and secondly, that part of the agenda of the shock is to promote the stintingal integration of east Europe within a EU run framework. Both of these reasons argon telling. First, the sparing success of Belarus bulgeside of the system financed by the International M unmatchedtary Fund has exist the European Union and the United States. The dateless accusations of vote rigging an d oppression atomic number 18 belied by the incident that Lukashenko is oerseeing a persistent expansion of the post-Soviet economy of Belarus, and that he holds to a solid popularity rating of 80%, this aft(prenominal) over 10 geezerhood in office.The Los Angeles Times (September 25, 2005) has give tongue to raze Lukashenkos fiercest opponents enduret question the accuracy of main(a) polls that rate him the near popular politician in this demesne. insofar, the major text file and agencies here do non function reference to it at all. From the Financial Times (May 2, 2009), the Belarussian foreign Minister, Sergei Martinov, fears that the Prague Summit would feel move into a competition for Belarussian clog up. In slightly(a) some other words, that the EU was using this summit to sweetener Belarus away from Russia.Martinov said that We atomic number 18 non going to make a pickax between the EU and Russia. We atomic number 18 non going to develop relation s with one at the expense of relations with the other. It seems that the fears of Lukashenko and his administration argon justified here. The only cerebral reason why the EU, whose public condescension for Lukashenko is daily made clear, would want Belarus to answer the Prague summit is so that they can allow in Belarus away from the protection of Russia with the aim of repair her passing successful political system.What other government would tolerate this? It seems more that the EU seeks the cooperation of Belarus, at least partially because Russian embrocate pipelines and much refining talent goes straight thought Belarussian territory. While the EU publically condemns Belarus for vague crimes, the Belarussian foreign commerce regime has been heaving tilted towards the EU and away from a dependence on Russia. Belarus is skillfully playing both sides, qualification herself indispensable for both the Russian and the European sphere of influence.The detail is that, vague denunciations aside, Belarus excuse sports a large trade and figure surplus, high sparing growth grade and an unemployment rate of around 1%. These be ar difficult to argue with, and so, the EUs approach has now been say more towards dialogue quite an past confrontation. In April 29, 2009, the Euro-Business newspaper from Brussels came let out with a scathing article contend Belarus from a Polish point of view.It relates the president of the European parliaments reflection of Belarussian policies while speaking in Poland, and reminds readers that Lukashenko was infra a EU imposed operate ban lifted only in October. But what be the facts here. Again, the president of the rather as well asthless EU parliament attacks Belarus for a lack of body politic. But Belarus has 14 sovereign and rather large political parties, some pro-Lukashenko, some opposed. Belarus has dozens of mystically owned newswritten document of diverse backgrounds, including the large anti-gov ernment Charter 97 news agency.Apparently, the issue is not over democracy but Belarus unvoiced virtuoso of national license, including in terms of economic integration with the EU. Pro-Belarussian professor Matthew Johnson had this to say closely the fleck in Belarus In Belarus, a country the size of Kansas, there are about 800 newspapers. Of this, about 600 are privately owned. There are about 450 magazines are various kinds. Of these, about 300 are owned by private investors or entrepreneurs. In television, there are 9 state owned stations, and about 40 stations owned by private investors (Johnson, 2006).On April 30, 2009, the Soros owned tuner Free conversancy newspaper wrote that Czech President Vaclav Klaus has said he would neither shake Lukashenkos submit nor invite him to the Prague castle if he sets to the Czech capital. No reasons for this immature overreaction are given. It does business leaderfully suggest that the EU and the US are putting quite a bit of pre ssure on European leaders to freeze out the item-by-item Lukashenko. His economic success and thriving democracy are a threat to the westernmost where democracy is synonymous for integration with the west. Lukashenkos independent course and economic success farthest and above either Poland and Czech state in terms of incomes and unemployment (cf. solid ground cant Report, 2009). The Russian News and Information sanction wrote on February 18, 2009, that The EU plans to include Belarus in its new program, Eastern Partnership, on the take that capital of Belarus complies with EU demands on the countrys democratization. In other words, Belarus can be a part of Europe so long as she ceases to be an independent country and permits Brussels to restructure her domestic policy.And would bang-up Britain like it if Belarus refused to ship each oil to Europe unless she pull out of blue Ireland? This is about power, and the foreign policy independency of Belarus. Refusing to follow a ny western line, Belarus has strong economic and military ties with Iran, China and Vietnam, hence standing in the way of western foreign policy. This seems to have more to do with the EUs contempt for Minsk than anything else. But often, the newspapers cut throught with here refuse to deal with the major issues.First, none of the above papers ever dealt with the economic success of Belarus, even when such success is seconded by the ball Bank statistics themselves. Second, they refuse to deal with Lukashenkos popularity and, lastly, refuse to deal with the long accounting of the CIA in attempting to destabilize that country, hence prompting Lukashenkos paranoia about foreign manipulation. capital of Minnesota Labarique writes in the Non-Aligned raise up Network The scouring administrations many attempts to end Alexander Lukashenko and destabilize Belarus to bring it to the marriage Atlantic orbit (NATO) have failed.Not exactly because the extremely authoritarian president h as had the support of Russia, but because it has relied on his voters. Appreciating the countrys good economic performance and the bread and butter of their independence, the Belarusian distrusted an antagonist similarly openly submitted to Washingtons interests (February 18, 2005) While this is a dated reference, it does show that many are suspicious about the so-called anti-Lukashenko opposition and the CIAs long running perturbation in Russian, Ukrainian, Serbian, Georgian and Belarussian elections.But none of this is speak of in the major media outlets in the States or the EU. The more recent articles dealt with in this paper refuse to deal with any of the major issues involved with the wests irrational attacks on Lukashenko. But what are the newspapers leaving out? Apparently they are chthonian a great gist of stress to paint Lukashenko in the most dire colors possible. But this is a problem if the major newspapers world gigantic are refusing the report the truth, than what does this say?It says that, especially in more obscure parts of the world, CIA participation can lead to distorted describe for reasons of national security. Or it may be merely that the reporters involved do not want to be thrown out of the country club, or that, even more, the intercommunicate Free Europe report is motivate by the fact that the Soros NGOs were thrown out of Belarus some years ago as agents of the CIA. Either way, the fact remains that newspaper reporting is highly suspect, and yet, the issues here are tremendous Russia is a nuclear armed country, and pushing Belarus too hard is, to some extent, pushing Russia.To doctor the Cold War is likely not the best idea in the world, and the fact that Belarus is reaching out to China and Venezuela suggests that an choice trading and military bloc is cosmos formed. The picture the newspapers paint of Lukashenko is an unrestrained tyrant. Yet that is not backed up by facts in any forum. Hence, in edition papers abo ut the relations between Lukashenko and the EU, one must be awake of the bias of the authors. The issues that the authors are not carry up either because they are too ignorant of the subtleties, or they are under pressure, are that first, Belarus is an economic and political success.Lukashenko enjoys wide popularity and has controlled the effects of both the breakup of the USSR and the on-going economic crisis. But Lukashenkos policies have been driven by state independence and the desire for a multi-polar world. This has led to threats from the west that has led further to the realignment of Belarussian politics towards anti-western centers passim the world, including the crucial area of nuclear power (Kommersant, 2006). The wests policies in this delight in have been failures.But it is also clear that the media is also a major power shadow the attacks on Lukashenko, often without the facts and research requirement to make sense out of the decomposable political situation o f small states in a hostile environment. Obviously the media is misreporting the situation in Belarus. It seems to this writer that the real reason Belarus is a threat is that they are an economic successful nation outside of the integrated structures of the west and its banks.Luskahenko has refused to permit his country to come under the control of the west, and has pursued a strategy of international equality, seeing all states as equal and as bestow to global justice. As a force he is vilified in the press, as some of the newspaper reports mentioned here show. History is in the making indeed, and it is being made by a handful of reporters and journalists in selected newspapers. References Barber, Tony. Belarus Fears Battle for Regional Influence. The Financial Times. May 2, 2009. Moscow Times. Lukashenko Expected to Skip EUs Prague Summit.May 4, 2009 EU Business. European fan tan Chief Calls for Democracy in Belarus. April 29, 2009. Radio Free Liberty. Belarussian President Will not Attend Prague Summit. April 30, 2009. Labareque, Paul. Belarussians Defend their Interests. Non Aligned Press Network. February, 15, 2005 Johnson, Matthew Raphael. Belarus A New Look. The American daybook for Russian and Slavic Studies, 2006. Kommersant. Lukashenko Speaks Chinese. May 24, 2006 World Bank. Belarus. 2009. (Cf www. worldbank. org/by) for all the statistical information on the Belarussian economy.