Small Opening Night in Big Russia



Recently Aleksandr Lukashenko is being compared with the Russian Prime-Minister Fradkov. However, differently from Fradkov, who has been free from any political ambitions, Lukashenko has strong political attitudes.

This sociological fact, registered in the recent survey of the Russian service „Levanda-Centr“, cannot guarantee „the Monomach‘s Cap“ for the Byelorussian „papa“. Despite that, the high rating of trust towards Lukashenko within the Russian community (sociologists noted, that he is in the list of ten most popular politicians of Russia) made us analyze the reasons of this phenomenon. How could the Byelorussian dictator conquer the Russians soles?

At the beginning Lukashenko had practically no possibilities to reach the Russian electorate. However, the Byelorussian „papa“ found the way out: he started to „cultivate“ the Russian media in order to regularly „wash“ the brains of the Russian citizens. Three years ago Lukashenko initiated a series of regular press conferences for journalists from the regional Russian media. „These meetings were necessary in order to highlight another, alternative thinking in Russia, i.e. the different thinking to that which we‘ve been witnessing every day“, explained Lukashenko his relationship with the Russian journalists. The Byelorussian dictator said, that journalists from the Russian regions, while properly met and blessed in Minsk, will tell, after having returned to Russia, that they‘ve seen really „strong and prospering Belarus“. „When they find out the truth, they will expand this news to hundreds of Russians, and this will be to my benefit, to the benefit of Belarus“, considered „papa“.

The plan has fully served the purpose. The journalists of the regional media were showered with various gifts, accommodated in nearly the best hotel of Belarus („Planet“). Therefore it is natural that after coming back to Russia they wrote unimaginable articles in newspapers. It seemed that they have visited the Almighty in the Paradise. By initiating regular press-conferences with representatives of the Russian publications, Lukashenko managed to achieve his goal – the journalists started to write articles in favor of Belarus, and not Russia. While reading this, the Russian society, not spoiled by signs of attention of local authorities, believed in the Byelorussian fairy-tale. The trust in Lukashenko started to increase with enormous speed.

Boris Malinovskij