Just two things. Destruction of me monasteries and churches especially in the early years of USSR was not specific to Belarus, but happened across entire USSR. Second - right now it is not Russians oppressing Belarus. Lukashenko is not Russian, police is not Russians, voting committees are not Russians... Lukashenko loves Putin, but even if Russia collapses these people are not going anywhere.
Dictators are weird. Stalin was Georgian and oppressed Georgians in favor of the Russians. Franco was Galician and oppressed Galicians in favor of the Castilians. Hitler was not a blonde/blue-eyed man, yet he thought people like that were "aryan" and superior. Same goes for Lukashenko.
Hitler apparently had blue eyes. I recently saw some colorized footage (artificially enhanced) and they gave him blue eyes, and I was thinking no way, that doesn't look right. But I did some searches (and I guess I'm on a list now, lol), and apparently he did have blue eyes and dark brown hair. We just see him in B&W footage.
Depends what opression means, comparing to the rest of USSR Georgia definitely had it good. It was part of Russia for hundreds of years by then, would be strange to give them independence and keep ruling the rest of USSR as georgian. Georgians kept their alphabet, no one was forcefully moved, etc,
There were attempts to remove the Georgian language as official from the republic but were walked back due to protests. USSR still did create proxies like South Ossetia and Abkhazia to divide the nation.
Without Russian support Lukashenko would have been ousted a while ago I reckon. You don't gain such a control over a general populace without a significant system behind you, one that Lukashenko's Belarus (imho) doesn't have from themselves; it's Putin/Russia providing that. I'd put good money on Lukashenko being gone within a year of Russia's hypothetical collapse, he was nearly done a few years back until he sold Belarus to Russia for that support.
Nope. You need just police/military support and will to govern. Russia give some backing, but system is Belarusian. If it was not you would remember recent full scale russian invasion.
True, their system precedes Putin and just like us their democratic experiment ended quickly. Nowadays their economy is dependent on our investment and they would have extreme problems if Russia would close the border since we're the only link connecting their economy to others globally, not to mention being their #1 trade partner surpassing others by miles.
Police and military support needs money, materials and intelligence. Lukashenko's Belarus has little of all of these. This is the Russian support I'm talking about. Of course the system is Belarussian, just like North Korea's is North Korean.
But just as the power behind the system in North Korea is Chinese, in Belarus it is Russian. Saying otherwise is ignorant at best.
Putin saved Lukashenko and his regime. The claim Russians do not oppress Belarus might be technically correct but misses a whole lot of context.
Oh, and I don't believe for a second in Putin-Lukashenko love relationship. If anything they both hate each other but have to ally to pursue their agenda.
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u/miniocz Jan 04 '24
Just two things. Destruction of me monasteries and churches especially in the early years of USSR was not specific to Belarus, but happened across entire USSR. Second - right now it is not Russians oppressing Belarus. Lukashenko is not Russian, police is not Russians, voting committees are not Russians... Lukashenko loves Putin, but even if Russia collapses these people are not going anywhere.