Sidorksi returns from Moscow. Is Operation Successor about to begin?
Ex-PM Syarhei Sidorski is returning from Moscow to Minsk. According to media reports, Belarus filed a request with the Eurasian Economic Commission to revoke Sidorski back to Minsk. Syarhei Sidorski currently serves as Minister of Industry and Agricultural Complex at the Eurasian Economic Commission. The ex-PM may head the President’s Administration, TUT.BY reports.
We asked the EaEC to comment on the news and the press service redirected us to Syarhei Sidorski’s secretariat. The reply was given two hours later.
“They said that they would not comment on it. They would not refute or confirm it. This is Sidorski’s position. They (Syarhei Sidorksi’s secretariat – Euroradio) did not explain anything and we cannot comment on this information,” deputy head of the EaEC press service Marina Shkurlatova said.
Such responses are usually given when officials do not want to tell the truth and do not want to lie either. However, if the information about Syarhei Sidorksi’s new appointment is true, what will happen to current head of the President’s Administration Alyaksandr Kosinets? He may come back to the medical research centre “Infection in Surgery” or become rector of Vitsebsk Medical University. However, Kosinets is likely to continue his political career, ex-MP Volha Abramava thinks.
“Lukashenka’s potential successor (or a group of people) has already been defined in case the transit of power is carried out in the near future,” Abramava suddenly announced at the conference “Rubicon-2016” in Tallinn.
When asked what she meant, Abramava briefly replied: Alyaksandr Kosinets.
Speaking about the project Successor, current Minister for Foreign Affairs Uladzimir Makei seems a favourite, political scientist Alyaksandr Fyaduta thinks. However, ‘Makei’s group’ is the minority now and its position is very weak. Its support in the state apparatus is an imitation because many people think that the Minister has gone too far, the expert believes.
“On the contrary, Kosinets’ group is interesting. It unites the old and new top-level government officials. The generation that could support Makei has been removed from the government; it will get the short straw. It will be an interesting competition despite my absolute indifference to Mr. Kosinets,” Alyaksandr Fyaduta said.
There is another possible candidate, political observer Raman Yakauleuski thinks.
“I think that the third candidate is Myasnikovich who is also called ‘the top bureaucracy’s talisman’ – he is the head of the Council of the Republic ad can play Iliescu’s part. Iliescu became the first President after Ceaușescu.”
The only problem is the Constitution. If the President is unable to fulfil his duties, his responsibilities are transferred to the head of the Council of the Republic. Were the changes to the Constitution Alyaksandr Lukashenka mentioned on September 7 connected with the necessity of transferring the power to someone else?
“If Lukashenka decides to transfer power to Kosinets, his son or Makei, he will not have to change the Constitution – the current Constitution allows it,” political scientist Yury Drakahrust belives.
Why has everyone forgotten about Victar Lukashenka? He is a member of the Security Council and controls the security agencies.
“Victar Lukashenka is only one of the instruments of controlling the security agencies,” chairperson of the analytical project “Belarus Security Blog” Andrei Parotnikau said. “There is nothing more. He does not play any separate part and cannot be considered a successor.”
Photo: Zmitser Lukashuk, TUT.by, Bymedia.net
