The conduct of the Belarusian leader in the recent past has been turning really unpredictable

The conduct of the Belarusian leader in the recent past has been turning really unpredictable. He has been inventing lots of excuses and definitions in order to call off, postpone and indefinitely delay the date of the Russian ruble’s appearance in Belarus. Launching it into circulation would automatically signify the end of Belarus as an independent country. The Soviet rhetoric has long become part of Lukashenko’s image. A person, who came to power due to the people’s nostalgia over the “strong hand”, has constantly declared that only in the USSR they had created an almost ideal state model. And it is quite understandable – only such model allows the authorities to get in control the country’s financial goods, concentrated on its territory. To follow such a model, however, requires conquering the new markets and territories. The first referendum in May 1995 made Lukashenko’s ambitions plain clear – he set his mind to go eastwards. He zealously signed an agreement on the deeper integration between Russia and Belarus. Inside the country Lukashenkohe popularizes his image as of a defender of state sovereignty, while he himself, under various excuses, declines to sign agreements on Russian ruble as the sole means of payment. The national TV channels portray Russia as a backward war-torn country, while integration plans are allegedly being thwarted by some mighty forces, which can’t even be mentioned aloud.